“Any questions? Yes, you over there…

  What’s the worst thing about Antithesis? That would have to be their ability to replicate.

  Give the fuckers a chance and a bit of biomass, and they’ll start pumping out models like there’s no tomorrow. It doesn’t matter how easy low models are to kill, given enough of them even an experienced Samurai could fall. All it takes is one slip-up.

  Always remember, never leave a pnt behind!”

  --Stormsurge, giving a guest lecture at New Oxford University, 2031.

  Stripe jumps off my shoulder at the appearance of the rge bin lorry floating a few inches off the floor, and Chip and Spot both flip around to look, hopping down after her.

  Of course. The b has been customised to better fit your theme.

  Is that smugness I hear in her tone?

  “My theme?”

  Trash Bandit.

  “…”

  “So, how does this thing work?”

  You can connect to it with your augs to view the current synthesis progress and control the railguns, but to operate the b or drive it you must get inside.

  “Through the front?” I ask looking over the floating lorry.

  It’s actually a bit bigger than a normal bin lorry, about fifty per cent so if I had to guess, but it’s still the same shape. Luckily it looks a little nicer with a clean grey and bck paint scheme, and the front driver’s cabin looks rge enough to stand in, so it should be comfortable.

  I guess I know where I’m napping if Cyon decides to knock me out again.

  The bulk of the vehicle is taken up by the rge boxy container though. I can’t see an obvious door since the rear is taken up by a curved chute to deposit rubbish into.

  Or I guess biomass in this case?

  No. There’s a side door to access the b just beside the driver’s door. Open it through your augs.

  “That’s still the front…”

  She doesn’t respond to my grumbling as I walk forward and gnce at the handy little b widget that appears in my augs main menu. It’s styled as a cartoonish raccoon in a cute little b coat swirling a beaker of toxic-looking green sludge, and it opens into a small menu with a few options for the guns and the b. Scanning through them I select to open the door and set the guns to auto mode, watching in awe as two long, sleek bck guns extend up from between the cab and the container.

  They drop down from their vertical tilt after clearing the truck’s roof and swivel around as if scanning the street. Both guns have long barrels striped in grey and bck with a bulbous body connected behind them and, as they spin, I notice two small handles mounted to their backs.

  “Are those handles for manual mode? Why should I ever turn them off auto?”

  You will gain fewer points for Antithesis killed without your direct intervention. Your siblings controlling them will also give you a better split than automatic targeting.

  “Oh, right. That makes sense.”

  I look away from the cool guns for now, I can look at them more when I have some symbiotes cooking, and focus on the panel near the front of the rear container that slid open while I was distracted.

  I approach the door and step up into the lorry as one of the guns hums with a soft crack. My head snaps down the street, and I see a stray Three slump to the ground as its face explodes into a fine green mist.

  “Woah, what did it fire?”

  That was a basic kinetic round. They can be loaded with more extreme ammunition from your bacterial and explosive catalogues if you choose. Each railgun has an internal magazine that holds two hundred rounds, and you can customise each one if you so choose.

  “That’s good enough for now. Maybe ter.”

  I gnce at the point counter in my augs ticking up by six before reaching out to grab a convenient handle just inside the door and pulling myself up into my b. The inside is surprisingly spacious, though it’s easy to tell a majority of the trailer is taken up by wherever the back chute leads by how narrow the room is. It’s painted in a clean white, with screens dotted around and several ports along the wall towards the back.

  “Are there any seats?”

  No. However, if you would like you can purchase an Adaptable Squish from your Prolotor Bacterial Genetics catalogue for twenty points.

  “Seems like a lot for a chair, but sure.”

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  New Purchase!

  Adaptable Squish – 20 points

  Remaining points: 1694

  _____

  A white blob about the same size as me appears on the floor in front of me. It looks smooth, so I reach out to touch it and find the surface is unbelievably soft.

  My eyes light up and I throw away any inhibitions instantly and leap into the Squish, falling into the soft, pillowy heaven. The blob deforms around me, letting me sink into it as it gently wraps around me, shifting to let me lie down comfortably on my stomach.

  ‘I take it back,’ I speak into the Squish, my voice being muffled in the process. ‘If I’m napping anywhere, it’s here.’

  I feel several light impacts beside me as my siblings join me, snuggling in to get cosy against my sides.

  It’s not until one of the railguns hisses again that I finally drag myself out of the soft folds of the Squish and turn around to sit upright. The white blob moves with me, tilting up and rolling my siblings into a pile in my p as it spins around to face me towards the ports on the wall.

  “Woah,” I mutter as the seat moves on its own.

  The Adaptable Squish is a useful product made from the byproducts of one of the Prolotors’ many experiments. It is filled with a strain of self-replicating bacteria that can feed off dirt and sense the emotions of animals that come into contact with them. They will move to please whoever is currently in contact with them.

  “This seat is bacteria? Funky. So, how do I work this thing then?”

  The screen set into the wall about the weird ports turns on, showing a big arrow pointing down at a port that looks kind of like a circur slice of flesh.

  First, extract a sample from Sim using the Genetic Sample Extractor on the left.

  Two boxes appear on top of Stripe and Chip’s backs, so I grab the one on the right with a picture of a raccoon stabbing a bck blob with a comically oversized needle. Popping it open I find a gss tube covered in silver metal, but when I pull it out of the box, I don’t see a needle, only two ft ends.

  I hold one of the ends against my forearm, watching to see if anything happens, and I see Sim creep up the edge of the tube’s metal before sinking into it, filling the gss with midnight bck within moments.

  Sim releases the tube after it’s full, going ft to my skin again as I hold the full extractor up and put the same edge to the smooth film on the indicated port. The darkness inside the extractor flows out, and tiny dark veins spread across the cream-coloured film.

  Perfect.

  The arrow vanishes from the screen, being repced by three more coloured in green, red, and blue, pointing to a different rectangur port each.

  Please insert the Culture Solution into the correct ports.

  Chip spins onto his back and opens the case now on his belly for me, revealing three equally colour-coded rectangur vials. I follow my instructions and slot each one into pce, watching them drain as I pce the st one before detaching on their own and cttering to the floor.

  The screen resets again and starts going through a technical readout too quickly for me to even try keeping up. Soon it settles on a simple information page that also pops up in my augs.

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  Avaible Cloning Samples:

  Basic Clothing Symbiote (Stealth Modified) – Culture avaible for six units, time per unit, thirty minutes.

  _____

  I select the symbiote in my augs and the menu changes to ask me how many I want to add to the culture chamber. I select three for now, and the screen changes again

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  Cloning in progress!

  Remaining time: 30:00

  Please insert biomass.

  _____

  The timer isn’t moving, and the bottom line blinks repeatedly.

  “How do I…”

  The chute on the outside.

  “Damn it.”

  Reluctantly, I push myself out of the Squish. My siblings tumble off me in the process, nding on the plush seat, but a quick whistle immediately snaps them to attention and they crawl out to follow me.

  I definitely don’t feel bad about the tears building in Spot’s eyes as he climbs out of the squish.

  Not at all!

  We cmber out of the truck and the door slides shut behind us as we walk to the back. I grab onto a handle on the corner and swing myself up to stand on a little ledge at the back of the truck, staring into the closed chute.

  You can either drop biomass in manually, which will be helpful once you have raccoons designed to collect biomass, or you can use the suction hose. I will eject the hose to make your job easier now.

  A slot opens up beside the curved chute, and a circur metal tube shoots out, dropping down to rest against the floor below.

  Activate the hose through your augs whenever you’re ready. It can extend up to ten metres.

  Chip and Spot grab the floppy tube, lifting it up and peering inside before looking over to me for instructions.

  {Suck it all up!} I squeak, activating the suction and watching Spot jump back in surprise as his fur is pulled towards it.

  {Haha!} Chip squeals with joy, pulling the tube along and chasing after our brother, trying to suck him up and getting the alien sludge in the process.

  The timer in my augs begins ticking down, but my gaze scans the mess we’ve left across the street and my brow creases.

  “Can we even use all of this?”

  You can fill the b past capacity to produce the symbiotes and then get started on producing some clones of your siblings as well if you would like. After that, I would advise dropping a canister of White Dream S0 to deal with the remnants as you move on to continue gaining points. You can gather more biomass ter.

  “Okay, sure,” I say as I pick up Stripe and leave our brothers to do the dirty work, climbing back inside the lorry. “Time to clone Stripe!”