Chương 31: Chapter 29 - Bug Control

It took another four hours to clear the area between the Saints and the Terminal. I originally 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 cleaning up the Antithesis with their B3 Heavy Assault Rifles, or B3-ARs. I may have ignored the 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 checking on the Terminal a priority. The walls here were thicker than the Precinct, and I hadn't seen any Model Eights here earlier, but that didn't mean the stupid plants hadn't tried something.

I was considering 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 inspecting the outside and you never bothered to look up slightly?] I did, only to notice half a dozen cameras mounted on the walls at regular intervals. Like any secure location would have. Obviously. [Ahhh… right.] I straightened up, people were watching after all.

[I managed to clear up the worst of the Antithesis yesterday, with the help of another Samurai. I'm trying to clean up the remnants now, gimme an hour and it should be safe enough to open up the doors again.] [Okay, I'll inform everyone here. Don't do anything stupid, I'm watching. I'll know.] There was excitement, and a touch of concern, in her voice. I could imagine she was going stir crazy in there, being stuck in there for over a day without being able to check on the kids.

I cracked a smile, I could just imagine her bouncing 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 line went 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 actions 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 handle the additional snark. I shook my head, trying to clear all the unnecessary thoughts before I flipped the machine on. It only took a few seconds for the first Antithesis to show up. A trickle of low level models that were slowly ramping up.

The south was relatively clear, I'd been methodically clearing my way up here most of the day, so I'd be surprised if there was any significant Antithesis presence down there still. While I was covering the west things started to go weird. I fired two shots into an approaching group of threes, only to have three die, and then one I never shot started melting. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Nyx, what the hell was that?" I have no idea. The damage seems reminiscent 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 insect-like forms rose from the slurry and dove into the adjacent Antithesis bodies. I stared, slack jawed, as those bodies also began melting as well. Soon there were four insects diving into the nearby bodies.

"Disgusting." Efficient"What the hell are those?" I'm not sure, but it appears to be self replicating, anti-Antithesis tech. It's almost certainly from a Samurai catalog, probably a high class 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 completely coated the street. They dug into every Antithesis they could reach, living and dead, slowly dissolving them from the inside out.

"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 completely covered in what appeared to be tight, segmented brown power armor. A pair of insectoid 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 landed in front of me, nearly silently, and walked over.

"I did not expect to find our newest Samurai to be out trying to clean up the streets the day after an incursion. Usually the others leave that to me." Her helmet split open and revealed an elegant looking woman. Mediterranean, 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 expecting, polite and friendly. It took my brain a minute to catch up to reality, "Nice to meet you, I'm Evelyn Claire, everyone around here calls me Teddy."

"I didn't expect to meet you until later, what are you doing out here?" she asked.

"Well, I honestly didn't expect someone else to come down and clear out the Antithesis after the incursion, so I was doing it myself," I explained as I rubbed the back of my 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 can't let people suffer by allowing the Antithesis to run free, can we?" I nodded, slightly distracted by the insects crawling across the front of Maria's armor. They looked artificial, like someone took an Egyptian scarab and made it more angular, robotic.

"Are those safe? Like really safe?" She laughed, "Yes child, my drones dig into the Antithesis and break them down from the inside out. They won't attack any other type of material, and they're biodegradable so they'll start breaking down once the incursion is finished."

"Right… that's good." My eye twitched, I didn't want to be rude but…

"Can 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 in the city 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 wanted to 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 checking on the status of the Shelters down here. We will be more diligent going forward." She bowed. This conversation was starting to get super awkward for me, definitely not what I expected.

"Barricade, another Samurai in the city, wanted to take a look at the destroyed shelter once the clean up was complete. I've heard it was one of your concerns as well, would you like to meet him?"

"Sure… just gimme a few minutes to let everyone know things are cleaned 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.