The evacuation was well underway when my augs lit up with a call frht Eyes. “Heads up, I see a wave of double digits heading in from the south. Nothing iwenties yet, but I’ll keep you informed.” She disected before I could reply.

  “Wonderful,” I hissed before stepping up the wall. All arouhe bears shifted, preparing.

  The back of the Antithesis line parted, revealing something that looked like an anic bulldozer bde slowly advang. Behind it were a wave of strange creatures that resembled some sort of grasshopper, but with long necks and gaping maws.

  I reached bad felt Spooky pce the railgun into my hand. Pg the gun on the sandbag, sighted one side of the bulldozer, and fired. There was a deep, metallic impact sound as one side of the bde exploded, exposing the body of the creature.

  From my left Humboldt opened fire. Her new sers cut into the now exposed Antithesis. It seemed to be iive at first, but as soon as the array focused on a single point they started cutting through the carapace. All three ioid legs on that side were quickly severed, leaving the beast trying to advah only its right side, causing it to spin in pce. O had rotated enough to expose its other side Humboldt severed the other set of legs, leaving the behemoth helpless.

  I was so distracted by the big Antithesis, I’d almost missed the smaller models set up.

  Almost simultaneously they reared bad spat out some sort of giant anic bos, which wheeled high through the air towards our lines. I watched the projectiles start to curve downward, half out of curiosity, half out of fear. At the st moment I threw my arm over my fad ducked down, trying to protect myself from damage.

  It turned out, I didn’t o. A long transparent blue-green wall appeared mid-air to intercept the projectiles, causing them to explode outwards. Thousands of razor sharp barbs that ripped into the Antithesis lines.

  I looked around, slightly fused, and for the first time realised Mirage was behind me. He was surrounded in a halo of light, he had ouristic gau pointed up at the wall.

  As soon as he dropped his hand the wall disappeared. Our eyes met for a moment, and he fshed a smile which made my skin crawl, “You o be more careful kid. Now you owe me one.” Before I could answer he turned and walked back down the lines.

  I shook my head and turned back to the battle, firing into the higher level Antithesis. “The hell was that?” I hissed.

  Although I ’t be one hundred pert sure, I think that was a hardlight proje.

  “Sure, I’ll just pretend I know what the hell that is.”

  Solid holograms, they don’t have the greatest resilience, but are very versatile.

  “And those grasshopper looking things out there?”

  Fifteens, Antithesis artillery models. Those projectiles act simir tmentation shells, very dangerous to densely packed areas.

  “Of course they fug are,” I grumbled, “because nothing be simple while dealing with the Antithesis. What about the big one?”

  I’d have to get a closer look.

  I grunted. It wasn’t like it was super important at this point, there were still hundreds of living Antithesis verging on our location, the dead one could wait.

  —

  We mao finish evacuating the mall’s shelter about half an hour ter. It took about the same amount of time for the Antithesis assault to e to an end. While the soldiers were preparing to leave, Sharron and I hopped the wall to up the bodies and check out the monstrosity we’d felled earlier.

  Once we got closer, I started to see a lot of simirities to a model I was very familiar with. Six eyes, segmented armor, and six tree trunk like legs. Uhe Twelves I was familiar with, this one had a pair of huge armored crab like cws, which I had mistaken as a bulldozer bde from a distance, and a hard, fan-like tail. I crouched dooked the beast with my axe.

  “What the hell is that?” Sharron asked, “It looks like a Twelve.”

  “It is a Twelve,” Nyx replied, using Spooky like usual. “The O variant to be precise.”

  I stopped poking it, turning to look back at the bear. “What the hell is a variant? I thought all the antithesis were just identified with numbers.”

  That’s just how humanity cssified them, based upon the order entered, but this system has issues. The antithesis have millions of different models, most of which are just slight mutations to the basic tempte, but specialized for a different enviro. The O variants, for example, operate better in aquativiros.

  “Wonderful, you please inform the other AIs what we found please, we should keep everyone informed.” I stood up and rubbed my hands on my pants to them. “Ahem know I’ll be indisposed until the shelter.”

  “ do.” I’m sure the bear would have givehumbs up if it could.

  As we were wandering back Sharron gave me a curious look. “Indisposed?”

  “Some of the upgrades Nyx was bugging me about, apparently it won’t be pleasant.”

  She nodded, “I’m apparently overdue, but get a pass because my suit has both strength enha and defences. Well, I’ll talk to you at the site, good luck.”

  I waved at her and climbed into the y truck. “Alright, do we have all the points needed for this?”

  More than enough, you have 1567, the question is how do you want to proceed?

  “What are my options?”

  Geics, which would ge your DNA, or Bionics, which will repce your body parts with syic repts. You decided against Cyberics.

  “I assume there are pros and s for both”

  Correct, geics will have more profound effects, but will have more profound side effects. Regeion, for example, will allow you trow lost limbs and ans fairly quickly, but will also supercharge your metabolism. Some of the stronger limbs may have a more inhuman appearance.

  Bionics, oher hand, will have fewer side effects, and appear more natural, but are more limited in scope.

  I nodded and sidered my options for a moment. “Let’s go with Bionics then, I may be limiting my options iure, but I’d prefer to avoid any major ges to my appearance.”

  In that case I reend the following, a Css I Bionic Muscle Enha catalog for the Mark I Syiesse muscles, the Css I Bionic Skeletal Enha catalog for the Mark I Lightweight Syies, and the Css I Bionic Healing Enha catalog for the Mark I Universal blood cell rept. One hundred points for each catalog, then two hundred for eaha. Twelve hundred fifty points in total.

  “We never discussed bone upgrades before, why now?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

  The healihod I suggested repces your bone marrow so your system will no longer create different blood cells, but a single cell type which performs all the same funs. Not quite as effective as nanites or straight up regeion, but expoially faster healing than the human norm. It be doo your inal bones, but that is more painful, and the cell reprodu is more effective when paired with Syies.

  I sighed. “Fine, give me the things.”

  A box appeared on the seat o me, inside was a cuff with a set of needles on the inside, and a small reservoir of liquid oside.

  Purchased

  Css I Bionic Muscle Enha catalog - 100 points

  Mark I Syiesse arm muscles - 100x2 - 200 points

  Mark I Syiesse Leg muscles - 150x2 - 300 points

  Css I Bionic Skeletal Enha catalog - 100 points

  Mark I Lightweight Syies - 250 points

  Css I Bionic Healing Enha catalog - 100 points

  Mark I Universal blood cell rept - 200 points

  Points remaining - 317

  A single, small box appeared on my p. fused, I ope to find a sial hoop with a couple vials of liquid screwed into the side. “The hell is this?”

  The ge will be… unfortable. It ’t be done instantly like cyberics, so the best option would be to put you to sleep while the ges occur. The cuff will allow me to put you to sleep, then wake you when the process is plete. I reend ying on the ben the back while it’s happening

  I stared at the cuff for a moment, deg if it was worth it. In the end I slipped it on, and jumped in the back. As soon as I id down I felt drowsy.

  “Nyx, you better not screw this up, I’ll never five you.”

  Don’t worry, everything is under trol.

  My st scious thought was that I o teayx what fgs were, so they could avoid triggering them iure.