I sprinted out of the residential area, only to be confronted by a truly massive inferno.

  The explosion originated from a vehicle repair shop and recharging station on the opposite side of the street. Most modern stations had solid-state batteries or used stable, environmentally safe chemical solutions, so this must have been quite an old installation to detonate like that.

  I quickly glanced between the station and the nearest burning house. The fires were separated by a two-lane main road with sidewalks. It felt unlikely that an ember would not only manage to make that trip but also spark such a massive blaze in such a short period of time.

  Shaking my head, I turned towards my squad. “Nyx, give Bob another vacuum bomb. Bob, remember to actually set the timer this time.”

  The big bear nodded, snatching the bomb out of the air and fiddling with it as he stumbled forward. I watched as he casually strolled into the fire, still fiddling with the dials and not once looking up to see where he was going. When he finally reached the middle of the charging station, Bob held the bomb aloft in triumph. “I got it!”

  “Bob, stop messing around!” I shouted over the fire. “That thing could go up at any minute…”

  The bear gently placed the bomb on the ground and slowly sauntered back out of the fire.

  Just as he cleared the charging area, Bob was completely bathed in flames.

  For a moment I thought the gas station had exploded again as an intense burst of white-hot flames forced me back a few steps. As I rapidly blinked, trying to clear the flash out of my eyes, I caught a glimpse of something moving within the fire. Something other than Bob.

  The titanic shape slowly slithered out of the attached garage, head slowly weaving back and forth, a forked tongue flickering in and out of its mouth. It emerged just enough to expose its two front legs when Bob stumbled out of the fire, his facade half melted. “Well, that was unpleasant. I think I preferred being stuck in the vacuum bomb.”

  The Antithesis opened its mouth in a silent screech, spewing a wave of putrid bile towards Bob. After a few seconds it ignited, bathing the bear in another wave of flames.

  “Fucking hell, what is that?” I shouted, falling back from the intense heat while mentally ordering the squad to open fire.

  The Kodiak’s coil guns rained high explosive rounds down upon the creature’s carapace, which barely seemed to faze the giant lizard. With an almost casual indifference, the reptile turned its head and bathed the nearest vehicle in flames. The sticky substance clung to the vehicle’s armor like napalm, throwing off intense heat and smoke but causing little damage to the IFV.

  Unfortunately, I couldn’t say the same for the nearby rabbits. Those that got caught in the splash zone were quickly consumed as the chemically enhanced fire burned through their armor and limbs.

  “Rabbits, take cover!” I shouted over the crackling fire. “Bob… we could use some help here.”

  “I’d like to help, but I can’t see!” Bob cried as he stumbled around, flaming pitch covering his face.

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  Risking a face full of chemicals, I glanced around the corner of my cover to try and get another look at the Antithesis. The colossal quadruped had apparently managed to drag itself out of the burning building and was now surveying the street. Ignoring the continued barrage from the Kodiaks, it belched a stream of caustic slime across the road, bathing another building in burning liquid.

  It didn’t take long for the small red brick store to catch fire after that.

  “Time for a change of plans,” I growled, dipping back behind my cover. “Heavy! Break out your big gun, AP rounds only!”

  The rotund polar bear stopped firing his laser ineffectively into the side of the large Antithesis, tilted his head to the side like he was processing the command, then plodded back towards my personal Kodiak. He strode straight through multiple puddles of burning sludge, with no regard for his personal safety or the interior of my vehicle.

  A few seconds later he emerged, carrying his massive coilgun.

  The Antithesis ‘Dragon’ had started to wander off after dismissing my squad as insignificant, but it hadn’t gotten very far. It was still waddling through the nearby intersection when Heavy rounded the vehicle, his coilgun ready to fire.

  Unlike the high explosive rounds, which just seemed to bounce off the creature, Heavy’s armor-piercing ammunition tore through the thing.

  The first round ripped one of the creature’s rear legs clean off before burying itself deep in the creature’s abdomen. Its head whipped around, absolutely coating the area in bile, but Heavy didn’t let up. He just slowly marched forward, unloading round after round into the side of the monster.

  With each round, Heavy got a little bit closer, and the creature got a little bit slower. It still survived a lot longer than I expected, only finally perishing when the fifth round caught it in the upper chest and penetrated what I could only assume was the bile sac. Burning liquid erupted out of the wound, coating the street until the monster finally lay still.

  “When did the Antithesis develop biological fucking flamethrowers?” I spat. “If I had known I’d run into something like that, I would have invested more in fireproofing.”

  Taking a deep breath to calm down, I looked over at my crew. “You okay over there, Bob?”

  “I’m good! We’ve moved from the ‘my eyes are on fire’ stage to the ‘there’s still goo in my eyes’ one. I’ll have it cleared eventually!”

  “Great…” I muttered.

  “Now THAT’s something I never thought I’d see again,” Nyx declared, as their avatar came running out of the back of my transport. The little panda weaved between the various puddles until it was standing right next to the Antithesis’ corpse. “A Model Twenty Three-AH, to the best of my knowledge, it’s only been seen twice before.”

  “Why? It seems to be quite effective at shrugging off attacks,” I grumbled.

  “Well, that was more because its hide is extremely resilient to fire and explosives. It shares a lot of structural similarities with the regular Twenty-Three, it’s just quadrupedal because the chemical-generating organs and holding bladders need to be close to the mouth. That extra weight and weak spot make it more efficient for the creature to travel on all fours,” Nyx explained. “As for why they’re not used that often, that’s simple. They burn biomass. The Antithesis hate to waste what they can consume, and they only resort to extreme tactics when they believe they can gain more in the long term. This Model was created to help herd fast-moving, arboreal creatures into places where the Antithesis could easily pick them off. A desperate tactic on a planet where the incursions had ground to a standstill.”

  “And what is something like that doing here?”

  Nyx shrugged. “It’s still quite an effective terror weapon, and your race has a habit of creating houses out of non-edible materials and taking cover within heavily fortified bunkers. Seems like the Antithesis are trying something new to drive you out of hiding.”

  “Wonderful,” I groaned. “Well, the first thing I need to do is to send out a message to all my vehicles so they swap over to AP in case they run into one of those monsters. Then I should let the Family know we’ve got something nasty running around down here.”

  “You also still need to put the fires out,” Nyx reminded me.

  I turned back towards the still-burning charging station and the massive grinning bear shuffling around in front of it. “Bob… why is the station still on fire? I thought you set up the vacuum bomb.”

  “I did! I even put a timer on it and everything!” Bob announced proudly.

  “And… how long did you make the timer?” I asked.

  “Five minutes! More than enough time to get clear of the blast area,” he replied.

  I leaned forward and placed my helmeted head in my hands. “You realize that fire spreads, right? And every second counts? I expected you to put thirty seconds. A minute tops. You know what? Just let Nyx and me set the timer from now on. I think that’s probably safer.”

  Behind Bob, the bomb finally detonated, sucking the remaining gel off of him and putting out the fire. The big bear turned towards me, a massive smile on his face. “See? The system works!”

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