With the majority of the shield millipedes shut down, I had a very small window to prepare for the next wave of attacks. The smaller Antithesis were still throwing themselves at the wall, keeping my troops occupied, but they couldn’t make any real progress without something big to back them up.

  Although it might have looked like they were just throwing their lives away, I’d already seen a number of mutations on the smaller models. Sixes, Twelves, and Fourteens with harder shells, faster Model Threes, and even a couple model Elevens that took more than a single particle array strike to knock out of the sky.

  Normally this would have been a waste of biomass, but over the last couple hours the mold had advanced quite aggressively and was now covering most of no-man's land. It consumed pretty much every antithesis we’d killed, returning their biomass back to the hive to be recycled.

  I say pretty much because Wild had spent the last few hours planting an assortment of plants between the bear-acades and city wall that produced all sorts of biomass recycling seeds, pollen and spores, which were fighting the fungus and attempting to turn the bodies into useless sludge. Unfortunately they weren’t anywhere near as effective as the fungus, so the Antithesis still managed to retrieve the lion’s share of the biomass back to the hive, and our countermeasures were subject to the whims of nature, so when the wind changed and started blowing into the town instead of over the battlefield, they lost a lot of effectiveness.

  Wild had already started upgrading them to more advanced versions, which fired seedpods high above the battlefield before bursting, but until those came matured, the Antithesis were going to continue recovering the lion’s share of the resources.

  Unfortunately, even with Wild’s biomass denial strategies, the hive seemed to have the ability to replace its losses just as fast as we could inflict them. Once the megapedes had been dealt with, I’d immediately sprayed the area with M17 again to try and stem the tide, but the Antithesis had immediately dug tunnels around it. It seemed like they weren’t going to back down this time.

  I don’t know why they hadn’t escalated and started developing and deploying much stronger models yet. Perhaps it wanted to reproduce the anti-air scarabs and megapedes, or maybe it was still cooking something up.

  Whatever the reason, I planned to use the relative lull in combat, where the Antithesis didn’t have any bruisers that could threaten our defenses, to prepare as best as I could.

  I jumped off the wall and wandered over to the Kodiak that had recovered Bob’s mangled chassis. He’d lost two limbs, and his chest had been completely crushed when the megapede had collided with him. A quick network check confirmed that he’d gone completely offline.

  “So Nyx, what’s the damage? Can we salvage his chassis, or does he need a complete rebuild?” I asked.

  Well, his logical and personality processes, which were mounted in the head, are completely undamaged. Nyx reported. Unfortunately, the impact crushed most of his core systems. The subspace anchor is a complete write-off, as are his autorepair and power systems. You could repair him, but it would take several hours, the frame would be permanently weakened, and it would be barely cheaper than a complete replacement.

  “So his brain survived, but little else. Wonderful,” I muttered. “I guess he was due for an upgrade, but I didn’t want it to happen like this. First of all, is there like… a common sense co-processor that would fit into his head?”

  We’re in the middle of a battle, and the first thing you worry about is his decision-making skills?

  “I really need him to stop doing stupid shit just because his frame is so heavy. Yes, he prevented that megapede from penetrating the wall, but we probably could have handled it. Bob may be strong, but he needs to think before he leaps,” I explained. “Combat wise… is there anything I can add to him that’ll boost his combat effectiveness without opening up a new Class III catalog? Shove some shield generators into him or something?”

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  I can do that. We can also use your linear accelerator catalog to upgrade his pile drivers so, they’ll do more damage. But that will require more frequent repairs or replacements. Nyx explained. I’d also suggest you install some sort of ranged weapon on the next frame, so he doesn’t feel the need to rush directly into combat all the time.

  “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Maybe a couple plasma throwers like the badgers,” I muttered. “No wait, that’s too close range. Maybe an energy weapon? Something from the same catalog as Heavy’s rotary laser cannon.”

  With what you have there’s not enough space for something like that in his chassis, Nyx replied. You could upgrade both your Heavy Laser Weapons and your Mobile Power Systems Catalogs to Class II. That would do it.

  “I only have them at Class I right now?!?!” I exclaimed.

  You didn’t have any tokens at the time and you just wanted something to quickly clear the smaller models. I didn’t suggest upgrading them earlier, because they did exactly what you wanted, and the coilguns dealt with anything larger, Nyx explained. Now that you’re mounting shield generators on Heavy and the moose models, you could upgrade the power systems and support both the shields and laser weapons at the same time.

  “Yeah, I honestly should have done that months ago. Let’s do that and purchase the blueprints to start producing the upgrades,” I said. “With those new catalogs, can we put a new weapon system on Bob?”

  Yes, some lightweight laser cannons. I would suggest mounting them behind the eyes.

  “Why behind the eyes? How does that make sense?” I asked, confused.

  Bob’s arms and body are already filled with equipment, the only places with extra space are his legs, or head, Nyx said.

  “I feel like you’re setting it up so one of us could make a ‘Bob has an empty head’ joke,” I said suspiciously.

  I would never!

  “Right… Well, those upgrades sound good,” I said. “How long will it take to change Bob over to the new chassis?”

  The beavers could do it in five or so minutes, they just need to scoop out his processors and plop them in the new frame.

  “Alright, make the purchase,” I agreed.

  As soon as I gave the go-ahead, a new Bob body materialized next to me. It didn’t seem to be that different from the old one, at least externally. Maybe a slight bulge at the upper back between the shoulders, and the eyes were a different color, but that’s all I could see.

  “I’ll send the beavers a priority work order, get them to send a team over and get Bob back on his feet,” I told Nyx. “While we’re waiting, we should talk about other ways to chew through my ever expanding pool of points.”

  Do you have any ideas?

  “Yes. I want that second UHR. The cooldown on my big gun has caused a lot of issues, allowing the Antithesis to get a lot of damage on Bear Force One, as well as letting those megapedes make it to our walls,” I said. “Twin linking the UHR would go a long way to negating those threats.”

  Twin linked weapons are typically fired simultaneously to increase the damage caused and decrease the chance of missing a shot due to shot deviation. What you want is twin mounted, but independent firing weapons.

  “Whatever,” I muttered. “I just want that gun! Please tell me I finally have enough.”

  You do. You earned enough shortly after the last assault started.

  “Excellent. Give it to me; it feels like I’ve been waiting forever for this,” I exclaimed.

  I glanced skyward, towards the underside of Bear Force One, and held my breath. The heavy ventral main turret shuddered as a new UHR slammed into place next to the old one. One looked mean. Two together? They looked deadly.

  “The guns are going to have independent power and cooling systems, right?” I asked

  Yes, despite being mounted in the same turret, the guns are completely independent weapon systems.

  “Excellent, that should help us stabilize if the Antithesis start throwing more titans at us,” I said.

  Assuming they don’t adapt and create something that can shrug them off.

  “Ugh… why did you have to say that? You ruined my good mood,” I muttered.

  I’m just trying to keep you grounded. The Antithesis do whatever they can do to adapt to their enemies. The UHR has been a pivotal part of your defenses, and the Antithesis know it. They’ll try and find a way to deal with it sooner or later.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know,” I said. “I’m just hoping we find a way to deal with them, or the Mars fleet arrives before that happens. But just in case… I assume I still have both points and tokens left, correct?” I asked.

  Quite a few, and with the number of Antithesis assaulting your defenses you’re earning more every second.

  “Excellent!” I proclaimed. “Then lets talk weapons.”

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