Even though the Antithesis assault continued to ramp up, I, unfortunately, was forced to pace back and forth behind the city walls, outside the range of the Model Fifteen-ish projectiles.

  “Nyx, are you sure I can’t afford anything to counteract the… ooze?” I asked for probably the dozenth time.

  You could if you had tokens, but you spent your last ones on the missile tech. Unfortunately, the Antithesis are throwing some very aggressive and corrosive stuff around, and you need advanced materials or neutralizers to handle it, Nyx replied. You and Wild are lucky you had complete Class II environmental seals, based upon my analysis that acid is a less potent version of the concoction the Model Forty-Four was spewing back in Jasper. I suspect the Antithesis were testing different chemical and biological weapons on Mars to bypass many of the more traditional samurai defenses.

  I stopped pacing and shuddered. Even though I was way more prepared to face the high-end Antithesis, the fucking monster the Antithesis birthed in those tunnels still gave me nightmares to this day.

  The fact that one of the Antithesis’ most basic ranged units was using a variant of the same acidic sludge probably wasn’t a good sign.

  “And how the fuck am I supposed to earn tokens during this cluster fuck?” I asked.

  In the same way you did before. Either destroy hives or kill exceptionally powerful antithesis.

  “Oh, yeah, no problem,” I grumbled. “I’ll just order the bears to march upon the hive. I’m sure they’ll be able to take down everything it can throw at us along the way.”

  Frustrated by my inability to act, I turned and jumped up on the nearest Kodiak and peeked over the town’s wall. Most of my bears now looked like futuristic killbots rather than the more cuddly killers I knew and loved. Most of their facades, the fabric coating which gave them the non-threatening appearance, had melted off after being repeatedly exposed to the acidic projectiles.

  Usually, they would have regenerated after a few minutes. Still, if the acid the Fifteens were flinging was related to the toxic sludge the Forty-Four expelled, it meant that it probably had flesh-eating microbes in it. Not only would the acid eat through most armor, but once it hit flesh, the microbes would swiftly multiply inside the target and devour them from the inside out.

  I’d lost friends to that concoction; it was not a pretty way to go.

  The only upside of the current situation was that the acid wasn’t strong enough to eat through the bear’s armor, or endoskeleton. Not this version, at least.

  “Nyx, once I get the tokens, the first priority is going to be upgrading my armor catalogs to resist chemical, biological, and whatever other attacks you think the antithesis might throw at us. Then, I want a serum to neutralize that fucking microbe. I’m not losing someone else to the fucking goo,” I muttered.

  Noted. You may want thermal, sonic, and electrical insulation too.

  A projectile with an exceptionally high arc sailed over the Bear-acade wall, coming down between the two barriers. As soon as I saw it, I ducked down, taking cover behind the concrete barrier. Less than a second later, I heard a sickening squelching sound as it exploded on the ground, followed by something splattering on the other side of the wall and sizzling.

  Message received; time to stop taking chances around the extremely deadly artillery goo.

  “Thermal, I get, but sonic and electrical? Seriously?” I asked as I jumped down from my perch.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Why are you surprised? The Antithesis already use organic ECM; arcing electricity isn’t that far off. There are plenty of examples of creatures using bioelectricity on your own planet. Well… there were, before the Antithesis arrived. Same with Sonic. They weren’t meant to be used against larger creatures, like humans, but that wouldn’t stop the Antithesis from scaling them up.

  “Yeah, I get it. Put them on the list,” I grumbled. “Since we’re upgrading my armor, could we integrate the shielding tech I purchased for Bear Force One?”

  There are smaller versions available, yes, but they’d only really be effective against kinetic damage.

  “That’s fine. It’s not like I’m lacking points right now, just things to spend them on,” I muttered. With the ability to observe the battle directly out of the picture, I looked up Bear Force One as it rained fire down upon the battlefield. Even though I couldn’t see the damage it was doing, the amount of firepower it was raining down was awe-inspiring.

  It also wasn’t enough.

  “Speaking of which, I assume I’m earning a decent amount of points right now… is it enough for another Shatterstorm?” I asked.

  I thought you wanted to equip an energy weapon on the third ventral turret point?

  “I do, but as you’ve repeatedly reminded me over the last couple of minutes, I don’t have the tokens for that. A second Shatterstorm could help us not only suppress the attacking Antithesis but push them back, even along such a long battle line. If I invested in a second one, could you make the mount modular so we could swap it out later?”

  I could do you one better: make the smaller dorsal and ventral turrets retractable and include a system that allows you to swap weapon types automatically.

  “That’d be fucking useful, but is there room in the ship for that?” I asked.

  Actually, yes. Even though the missile launch tubes are being placed on each side of the turrets, there’s enough room to hollow out the space inside the hull directly before and after the turrets to allow them to retract. There would be enough space to store and work on two different turrets there. You’d have to lose some storage space, though, and probably install some larger reactors in the long run.

  “We already planned for the reactors, and the ship has storage space to spare. There are entire rooms dedicated to storing extra troops when the hangers aren’t enough,” I replied. “I assume I need new tech for that, so add it to the list.”

  I paused and looked up at the Bear Force One again. “I don’t suppose I have enough points to finally install the second UHR, and make it twin-linked, do I?”

  You’ve managed to get surprisingly close in the last hour, but no. You could install the second Shatterstorm, though.

  “Do it then. Hopefully, with the added firepower, we can finally suppress those fucking fifteens and push this assault back,” I said.

  As soon as I asked, the area directly under the foremost, and previously empty, turret emplacement shimmered, and an instant later the space was occupied by a second, massive, six-barreled coil gun.

  [Spooky, I got you a present,] I declared through the command network. [Please put it to good use, and deal with those Fifteens that are causing problems.]

  There was a moment of silence, followed by an evil chuckle. [Of course, Commander. Leave it to me.]

  After a short pause, the second Shatterstorm swiveled, angled downward, and started releasing a nearly unending rain of metal rods down on the battlefield.

  I fought the urge to jump up on the Kodiak and look over the wall again, and instead connected to the cameras underneath Bear Force One.

  One Shatterstorm had been effective at suppressing the Antithesis. Two devastated them.

  Even without zooming in, I could see the area in front of the Bear-acades was littered with thousands of rods, skewering anything that got even remotely close to the wall. Now that there was a second cannon, the weapons began a creeping barrage into the forest, shredding trees and Antithesis alike.

  The green belt had already looked quite battered from the barrage the PMC’s Self-Propelled Guns had been subjecting it to, but that damage had been relatively focused. Precise strikes directed by Chameleons stationed in the observation deck of the Stratocarrier.

  This was widespread destruction.

  “Wild’s probably going to freak out when she sees this,” I muttered to myself.

  As the cannons bit deeper and deeper into the greenbelt, stripping away their cover as they crept towards the strip of fire that marked the strafing zone, I realized just how many Antithesis were pushing through. There were dozens of tunnels with Twelves, Thirteens, and Fifteens streaming through, and as I watched, a Twenty-Eight surfaced, creating a massive new burrow.

  Despite being penetrated by half a dozen rods, the monster managed to drag itself out of the hole it had created and allow another massive monster to peek through—a Twenty-Three.

  Thankfully, it only got a couple of feet before suffering the same fate as its tunneling comrade.

  Still, it was a bad sign. The Antithesis were still escalating, sending larger and larger Models through. At this rate, it wouldn’t be long until we faced Thirties, and maybe even Forties, and once that happened, I wasn’t confident our defenses would hold up.

  Even worse, that fucking mold had already spread through the tunnels and started consuming biomass a good twenty to thirty meters away. We just hadn’t seen it until now due to the tree cover.

  This was going to be an issue.

  While I considered what to do, my augs beeped, alerting me to an incoming call; the ID said CBeRN.

  “About time,” I muttered. “I hope my chemically minded friend has some good news.”

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