Bob continued tromping through the woods for several hours. Considering how often I heard the metallic snap of his pile drivers, there had been far more stealthy Antithesis running around in there than I expected. I didn’t notice any of them approaching the town, not that I would have before the grass fully developed, but it appeared like they were sticking to the forest. Like they were scouting us out.

  That was concerning because most Antithesis relied upon instinct; the only things they were capable of doing were killing, devouring biomass, and carrying it back to the hive. If this group was using tactics and trying to scout us out, that probably meant they already had a Model Seventeen or some other command model running around.

  Not good.

  Despite attracting the attention of the scouting forces, it seemed the Antithesis didn’t consider us a major threat yet. They were still focused on harvesting the biomass around the hive and recovering from the orbital strikes. That gave us more time to prepare, but also meant the main Antithesis force was slowly but surely making its way towards us.

  We put the time we had to good use. By the time Bob wandered back out of the forest, the entire town was surrounded by a thick strip of grass that shimmered and changed from green to purple as he crossed it. It wasn’t much, but it would give us a heads-up if any of those stealth models tried to approach.

  I’d also deployed an additional eight self-replicating minefields, extending our defensive line. I really wish I’d had enough to ring the town completely, but even when dedicating multiple Molecular Reconfiguration machines to their creation, the process was slow.

  “I think I finally got them all!” Bob declared as he strolled up to the wall. “You think they would have learned just to avoid me after the first couple got whalloped, but nope! They kept trying to bite me, and when they did, I’d just turn towards them and ‘Bam!’ right in the kisser!”

  I watched as the big bear shadow-boxed at the base of the wall for a while, shaking my head as he made ‘whoosh’ and ‘whump’ sounds with his mouth.

  “Did you see anything else out there?” I finally asked when he finished his little act.

  “Nope!” he declared, before pausing and cocking his head to the side. “Well, maybe? There was this weird purple-red fungus growing over everything on the far side of the forest. It was kind of gross, and it almost looked like everything it was growing on was rotting.”

  “The fucking Antithesis fungus has expanded this far already? Wonderful. You didn’t touch it, did you?” I asked.

  “Of course not. I’m not that stupid!” Bob declared indignantly. “I only stepped on it!”

  We both glanced down at his oversized feet, which, on closer inspection, had a thin layer of purple near the bottom. My eyes flicked to the area he’d been pacing back and forth across during his report--there were traces of purple in his tracks.

  “Fuck! The last thing we need is for that shit spreading across our defenses,” I growled. “Nyx, you mentioned the fungus was aggressive. Is it resilient?”

  It’s highly aggressive and quickly adapts to consume whatever it covers.

  “Yeah, but is it resistant to fire? Or better yet, Plasma?” I asked.

  No, there have been records of increased resilience on volcanic worlds, but it focuses on growth. Typical strains just attempt to grow faster than they can be destroyed.

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  I twirled about and quickly scanned the various forces wandering about behind me. It didn’t take long for me to spot what I was looking for.

  “You two, come here, quickly!” I snapped at a pair of badgers jogging behind a small squad of bears. They immediately split off from their group and eagerly scampered up the wall.

  “You see that shit?” I asked, pointing down at the tracks. The pair followed my finger, stared at the trampled grass, and shrugged.

  “The purple shit!” I exclaimed, clarifying what I meant. “The fungus. I need you to go down and burn it all before it can spread. Make sure you get the residue on Bob’s feet. Once you’re done, follow Bob’s tracks back to the main mass and start burning it back.”

  Are you sure that’s smart? What if the Antithesis attacks? The badgers will be caught out in the open. Nyx asked.

  “I don’t know that many Antithesis that can take down a badger, even in a swarm,” I said.

  That’s usually true, but you’ll have to remember the Antithesis swarming out of that hive are anything but normal.

  I pursed my lips and stared down at the two oversized pyromaniacs. They’d jumped off the wall so that they could coat the ground in fire that much faster.

  “You’re right. Shit… I just don’t like the idea of leaving that shit to slowly overwhelm the forest and crawl right up to our walls. But I still shouldn’t just throw troops away; we might need them before this is all over,” I muttered. Leaning over the wall, I shouted down at the pair, just as they bathed Bob’s feet in fire. “Forget following it all the way back! Destroy everything up to the tree line, then start patrolling the wall, looking for more. I don’t want that shit within twenty feet of our walls, got it?”

  The pair looked back up at me, grinning stupidly, and one of them gave me a thumbs-up.

  “I guess we should make a call to Charlotte and see if the Family has any plans to deal with this shit. The longer we let it expand, the harder it will be to contain and ultimately eliminate it. I don’t suppose it’s worth points, is it?” I asked.

  About the same as a samurai on cleanup duty gets for doing detail work, removing the remaining traces of hives.

  “I have no idea how much that is,” I grumbled. “Is it enough to pay for, say, firing missiles full of M17 on it?”

  Not even close.

  “Well, Bob clobbered a couple… something over the last couple hours. I have no idea how many points they were worth, but was it enough to buy a blueprint of said missiles?”

  I ended up equating them to Model Twenty-Ones: better stealth, lower survivability. And yes, there were enough to buy a blueprint or two. I have to ask, though, why M17? I got the impression you weren’t that impressed when I introduced it to you in the badlands.

  “Completely different situation. Back there, I wanted to make sure no humans wandered into the area and accidentally touched the stuff. And before you ask, yes, I do expect some people would do that. Over the years, I’ve learned two things: humans are attracted to fire, and there are always people who walk the path of stupidity and would touch it if they could. That’s bad when M17 is a gel that burns for several hours and can’t be put out with traditional means,” I said. “Here, though? Ideal circumstances. It’ll create a barrier that the mold can’t pass through, not unless the Antithesis go out of their way to introduce fire resistance to the strain.”

  You could still have humans wander into the bombing area.

  “If someone wanders into the area after all the emergency alerts, signs of antithesis activity, and ACTIVE bombing runs, I’m going to say that it’s their own fault if something happens,” I grumbled.

  So what type of missiles do you want? You can afford one or two, based on your selection. Nyx asked.

  “Those stealth models drove our chameleons out of the forest, so we don’t have any way to target the handheld missiles precisely, so… maybe ones that’ll fit into the Ursa’s missile launchers? If they’re fired sequentially, they can probably cover a decent area with each strafing run,” I said. “The Antithesis have decent anti-air capabilities, but they seem to be clustered around the main hive structure. Hopefully, if the Ursas fly low and stick to the perimeter, the Antithesis won’t see them as a direct threat.”

  Considering the size and complexity of that hive, I find it unlikely that they’ll go completely ignored for long. Something will take notice.

  “Well, we’ll deal with that if and when it happens. I’d rather risk the Ursas and keep that mold somewhat contained for a couple of hours than let it run rampant,” I said. “So, can I afford them?”

  You can, but you’ll have to schedule them in the Reconfigurators, and you have a ton of projects right now.

  “Put them in one of the new Class III machines. They’re much faster than the Class II versions, and we’ll probably need a ton of missiles before this is done. Even if the Antithesis do react and force us to stop the strafing runs, I have a feeling the M17 will still be useful later, once we’re in position to push forward,” I said.

  Sounds sensible. I’ve scheduled the first batch, and they should be ready in an hour or so. Nyx said. Anything else you need?

  “Reinforcements, more Reconfiguration machines, a billion points, or a superweapon that instantly wipes the antithesis off the face of the earth would be nice,” I grumbled. “But since I’m unlikely to see any of that, I’ll just take those missiles for now. Thanks, Nyx.”

  Anytime.

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