As soon as the salvaging trucks hit the field, many of the Antithesis turned to target them. Dozens of snot-colored bolos rained down upon them from the Model Fifteens, and the trucks were constantly pelted by the long metallic spikes fired from the modified Model Fives.

  Yet, despite all their efforts, the antithesis couldn’t dislodge the salvage teams. They did end up taking some damage--even with shield generators mounted on the trucks to help soften the blow, and the teams were out in the open, completely exposed.

  Occasionally a lucky projectile would get through and penetrate a bear's armor, but it happened so infrequently that when it did happen, another team member could just wander over and recover the body before going back to salvaging.

  I knew from Nyx’s descriptions the trucks would be effective, but I never realized how effective until I sat on the wall and watched them work. All they had to do was sweep a deconstructor across the battlefield, and it would clean up all the tungsten projectiles embedded in the ground. When they came across an Antithesis corpse that hadn’t been completely consumed by the fungus, the deconstructors took less than a second to clean up the smaller models. At this rate they’d be able to clean up all the spare metal right up to the Antithesis front lines in less than an hour, and once they entrenched themselves on the front lines, they’d be able to deprive the Antithesis of a significant amount of biomass.

  I just wish that I’d had them online earlier so they could have recycled the megapedes and scarabs to deprive the hive of whatever metallic or rare earth minerals they’d invested in those titans. I’m sure that would have made things easier in the long run.

  For a moment I considered pushing my entire front line out to engage the Antithesis where the scavenging crews were working. They were blocking the line of sight for some of my troops while holding their own out there, but I knew if I did that, there was a chance that the Antithesis could throw their next wave of mutations, or Thirty equivalents at my defenses, and having my forces exposed when that happened was just too risky.

  “Nyx, any chance that I have enough points for a couple new toys?” I asked as I watched the salvage crews work.

  Of course, what were you considering?

  “Well, our defenses have been pretty solid so far. They’ve only really been tested when the Antithesis have thrown larger models at us. Up to this point I’ve been upgrading my defenses in more of a reactive way. I think it’s time to be more proactive,” I said. “I know I’ve added the second UHR, but I want more options to deal with the big stuff before it becomes an issue.”

  So, more guns?

  “More guns,” I confirmed. “I was thinking of a couple different options. First of all, I only authorized you to purchase about half of the possible missile tubes earlier, and I was thinking of buying the second half but… I also noticed that between the primary and secondary turrets and defensive emplacements, there wasn’t much room left for missile tubes on the top side of the ship. Where are they supposed to go?”

  Underneath, of course. You’ve probably noticed that Bear Force One’s dorsal and ventral weapon layouts, that is, the top and bottom sides, are mirrored even though it would be far more beneficial to load the bottom with more weapons.

  “I may have noticed that,” I replied dryly. “It’s more than a little annoying considering most of the weapons I’ve unlocked are direct fire ones, meaning I can’t bring half of the turrets to bear on heavier targets.”

  There’s a reason for that. This particular model of strato carrier was designed in such a way that it could eventually be upgraded for orbital and then interplanetary combat.

  I paused and glanced up at Bear Force One.

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  “It’s a fucking spaceship?”

  Not yet. It requires quite a few additional systems and upgrades before it’s ready for that, Nyx replied.

  “How does this help me right now?” I asked.

  It doesn’t really, but I felt the need to explain why the remaining missile tubes would be mounted on the bottom of the ship, instead of the top. I knew you’d ask.

  “Right,” I sighed. “Is it safe to mount missiles on the underside like that? Don’t they, you know, get ejected then fire straight up in most cases? I see a significant design flaw if that’s the case.”

  Like I mentioned before, the missiles Bear Force One is armed with are more like cruise missiles than traditional ICBMs. They’re ejected from the tube, then turn nearly horizontal before firing the main thruster. As long as the ship is more than a hundred feet off the ground, and there are no significant obstacles in the way, the ventral tubes will still be able to fire.

  “Good, cause I’d hate to fire them directly into the bottom of the hull, or at what’s directly under the ship at the time,” I said, looking up again. “Which in this case would be us.”

  Please, I wouldn’t give you a weapon system that you’d blow yourself up with, I have more sense than that, Nyx replied.

  “Right…so can I afford the remaining missile tubes?” I asked.

  You can, the real question now is: How much are you willing to spend, Nyx replied. You could upgrade all the missile systems to class III and have me install the new missile tubes, but that would take up the remainder of your points.

  “Is there a reason to upgrade directly to Class III? Besides what I assume is a bigger boom,” I asked.

  Faster reloads, significantly improved payloads, increased range, tougher outer shell… pretty much every aspect of the missiles would be upgraded, Nyx replied.

  “Which would be great if the missiles were being intercepted, or I was attacking a hard target, but that’s not happening right now. Sure, with the improved reload I could cover a larger area with M17, but the Ursas are managing to cover a lot of the flanks right now, since Grand Falls is receiving the lion's share of the Antithesis’ attention,” I said. “Pass… for now.”

  I leaned back on the wall and stared up at my ship. “What I really need to do is improve my defenses. How long has it been since I upgraded my Bear-acade walls and the PAWS active protection systems?”

  Well, you picked them up about a week after you initialized, during the Siege of Seattle, so it’s been awhile.

  “It’s really been that long? Fuck…” I muttered.

  In your defense, you immediately purchased the Class II Area Denial Catalog, they were more than capable of dealing with whatever you ran up against, and you couldn’t manufacture anything stronger in the Class II molecular reconfiguration machines.

  “That’s true, but I have a couple Class III machines now. Nothing that could assemble the wall panels, but…” I said, an evil smile creeping across my face. “They could assemble some other goodies. Like upgraded self-replicating minefields.”

  That they could, Nyx confirmed.

  “I think what I’d like is the remaining class II missile systems on the ship, the class III area denial catalog, and blueprints for the Class III equivalent of my self-replicating minefields, bear-acade walls, and PAWS active protection systems,” I said.

  You still won’t be able to produce the walls in the two Class III reconfiguration machines you have--they’re too small.

  “What if I purchased a class III industrial machine?” I asked

  Then you’d have to cut back on something. You have a lot of points, but the industrial reconfiguration machines are expensive.

  “Everything’s expensive,” I grumbled. “What if I dropped the wall blueprints?”

  Still not enough, Nyx replied.

  “Fine, drop everything except the missiles, minefield blueprints, and Class III machine,” I said. “And queue up everything else to be purchased as soon as I have the points.”

  You don’t want to keep a small surplus of points in case of emergencies? Nyx asked.

  “I mean sure, maybe a couple hundred for emergency medical supplies, but I doubt I’ll need more than that,” I replied. “If the Antithesis manage to punch through our defenses in the next few hours, even after all my upgrades, I find it highly unlikely that I’ll be able to turn the tide for just a couple thousand points. No, it’ll come down to repositioning existing troops and defenses.”

  That’s reasonable. I assume you’d like to get the Class III self-replicating minefields going as soon as possible?

  “I would. Hopefully, if we can get them in place fast enough, we’ll be able to head off the next major Antithesis assault. I’d like to see those Megapedes storm the walls with their legs blown off,” I chuckled.

  I wouldn’t get too comfortable… they may be class III defenses, but they’re not infallible, and the Antithesis are still adapting to your tactics, Nyx warned.

  “I know. It’s just that the Antithesis have been pushing us hard the last day or so, and it finally feels like we’re getting on top of things. Hopefully this’ll give us enough staying power to hold them back until reinforcements arrive,” I said.

  We can only hope.

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