After clearing the bridge the streets were retively quiet. The residential building Nyx and Aeonys identified wasn’t that far away, so we made quick progress.

  I expected to see a few Antithesis going in and out of the building. Instead we found a massive hole dug uhe street, with dozens of different Antithesis proteg the entrance while dozens more others skittered in and out, pulling bodies into the hole.

  “You know, I expected something different.” I muttered. “That certainly looks like a or something though.”

  Sharron’s eyes flicked bad forth, taking iire area. “The one I found was a mess of tunnels, at its core was a giant root structure. I entered it when it was retively inactive, but I assume we’re looking for something simir.”

  I nodded, “Go iroy the giant root, end the incursion, easy.”

  Out of the er of my eye I could see Sharron’s head turn towards me, gcially slow, eyes narrowed.

  “Ok fine, not easy, but simple. Finding the hive itself has to be the hard part, right?... right?”

  “Just make sure that rifle of yours is reloaded, I have a feeling we’re going to ,” she muttered before striding forward. I quickly checked the magazine, just in case.

  The Antithesis surged forward, trying desperately to keep us away from the entrahey fared as well as the ones on the bridge. Scores were cut down, scores more poured out of the burrow, and then, the assault petered out and ended.

  I looked at the retively small number of bodies and scratched my head, “Was it supposed to be that easy?”

  “No, even in the mihe defense was strohan that,” Humboldt said, as she stepped up to the entrahere must be more below.”

  “Maybe…”

  We took a mio prepare, then Humboldt marched down into the tunnel, my bears and I a few steps behind. The darkness quickly closed in around us. I would have been blind if it wasn’t for Bandit’s sensor updates, but soon enough even that wasn’t enough.

  “Nyx, I need vision here”, I muttered under my breath.

  You’ll o open a catalog, you want the basics or…

  “No, I’ll spend the points, I want whatever I get to st a while. Make it tough. And put it in my hand, I ’t see shit.”

  Purchased - Css I Optical Sense Boosting Utilities - 50 points

  Purchased - Hardened Multispectral Dete Gsses - 100 points

  Points Remaining - 3523

  I felt something hit my hand, gsses of some sort. As I put them on I felt them curve around my face, like safety gsses, and after a sed they booted up illuminating the area.

  The tunnel was rough, it intersected the sewers and the occasional basement. The occasional offshoots we passed ended after a dozen or so feet, so our route was surprisingly Linear. I had a bad feeling.

  “Do you see anything up there?”

  “No, nothing” her once fident stride had slowed, apparently I wasn’t the only one worried about the situation.

  “Where the fuck is everything” I hissed, “There are no bodies, no Antithesis, no hive… what is this.”

  “I don’t know, but we’re already at the end of the road.”

  I took a step to the side, to look around her, only to see a bnk wall. There were two short offshoots, but no indication of why the Antithesis were digging down here. I was about to take a step forward when I noticed motion, just out of the er of my eye.

  What happened was so fast that I didn’t even have a ce to react.

  Two mandibles, each four feet long exploded out of the ground and then the wall at the end of the left offshoot moved. Except it wasn’t a wall, it was the head of an Antithesis that filled the eunnel, and its charge caught Humboldt dead on, carrying her into the other tunnel. I was left looking at a wall posed of dozens of legs and super heavy ptes where my friend used to be.

  Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, my e to my bots was interrupted, leaving only me to act. In a panic I turned, yahe Railgun off Spooky’s back, and took aim.

  That’s wheunnel was filled with noise.

  I could feel the vibration in my very bones, blood started to run from my eyes, ears and nose, my vision blurred. It may have been bad for me, the Antithesis had it much worse. Blood spilled from between every pte, the legs jerked unevenly, some even pulled themselves right off the beast. After a few seds, everythi still.

  For the sed time in as many hours, I had to empty my stoma the floor. Rolling on to my side I gasped, “Nyx, Nanites.”

  Purchased Css I naneive suite - 15 points

  Points remaining - 3708

  I mao rip open the package in front of me, and jam it in my arm, slowly my vision cleared, the ringing stopped.

  Aeonys just messaged me, they’re alive but trapped at the end of the tunnel and need help.

  Looked at the solid flesh wall blog my path and slumped. “Perfect.”

  It took about ten minutes for the bots to dig through the couple feet of dirt between me and Sharron using the entreng tools I bought. Her tentacles were pinned behind the suit, useless, so I o use my axe to cut away one of the mandibles that had her trapped. It took a couple swings.

  Once she was loose I could finally see the damage to her suit, the cockpit was cracked slightly, and shallow divots ran down both sides of the suit where the mandibles had gripped it. It was more damage than I’d ever seen, or expected her to take. The damage wasn’t the only thing that was wo stubby ons were mounted on the suit’s shoulders.

  Ironically Sharron seemed to be more ed about me than herself, “Fuck Evelyn, are you ok? I’m sorry about that, I needed something to kill that thing, I didn’t realize the colteral damage from the soninons would be so bad.”

  I shrugged, or at least I think I did “Ehhh… I’m starting to feel a little run down, but I keep going. I would like to stop throwing up now though, I don’t have that many nutriblocks left.”

  Sharron paused, then turo look at me, “Don’t tell me all you eat down here is nutriblocks.”

  “Of course not, I do occasionally buy burgers or synth poultry s for the family, when I have some extra cash.”

  Her face fell, and she grabbed one of my arms. “e here you,” she pulled me to a clear se of the tuhen poi the floor, “Sit.”

  I did, then, as I watched the cockpit of her suit split open allowio climb out. For the first time I caught sight of her body. She was slender, wearing a light jumpsuit, and tall, close to six foot. Some people have all the luck.

  She must have caught me gl, cause she turo look at me, an eye raised. “What?”

  “Nothing.” Internally I outing, I just wasn’t going to show it.

  “Right. Aeonys two meals please.” She raised her hands and two little boxes appeared. She handed me the top one. “Eat”

  I eyed the box suspiciously, pulled down my bandana, then cracked the top. A heavenly st arose apanied by a burst of steam. I gasped, “What is this?”

  She snorted, “Chi aables, I’m not going to let you tihout eating something proper.”

  I stared at the wall of Antithesis flesh as I shoveled spoonfuls of food into my mouth. I swallowed a mouthful of ambrosia, then poihat’s not a hive.”

  Sharron ughed, nearly spitting out a mouthful of food. Spooky stepped forward, “That’s correct, it’s a Model Fourteen. It usually fits the roles of heavy tank or transport, it’s also one of the models that doesn’t stop growing when there is suffit biomass, it just adds new segments.”

  “So they were just growing this thing as, what? A backup? More effit transport?”

  Spooky shrugged, “I’m unsure, but this one was massive. You were both awarded extra points due to its length.”

  I swallowed another mouthful. “We ’t push that thing into a al, is there anything we do about it?”

  “There is an Anthesis Biomass Denial Catalog, we deal with that after you eat.”

  I hen turned back towards Sharron, my cheeks full of mixed vegetables. I relutly swallowed them down, “Is your suit ok, it looks like it took quite a beating.”

  She nodded, “The seals held, besides the crack most of the damage is retively superficial. I’d rather not spend points unless I have to.”

  I cocked my head to the side, she must have foreseen my question because she answered it before I could ask. “I’m saving up for the ier of suit. I’ve unlocked the catalog, I just he points.”

  “How much?”

  She chewed a few more times, then swallowed “Ten thousand.”

  I spit out my food, “How much? That’s insane!”

  She shrugged, “It’s not that much for a veteran Samurai. These soninons are the first upgrades I’ve really needed for my suit. The level is their actual bat model.”

  Looking over at her suit I was once again remi was nothing but a mining rig, I tried to imagine what a bat model would do. It was terrifying.

  Sharron scraped the st bits of her lunto her mouth, then stood up. “e on, we o finish ing up arouhen search the other sites. We still have a hive to find.”

  I just licked the st remnants off my spoon and nodded.