“Are you sure that we’re following the leader?” I growled at Bandit while emptying my rifle into the oncoming wave of Model Threes. As soon as we’d entered the western tunnels, my forces had encountered constant, low-level resistance. It wasn’t enough to stop us from progressing, but it did slow us down.

  And as far as I was concerned, it was getting old.

  “Absolutely. I don’t think we’re gaining, but it did come this way,” the fox replied.

  “Then where are all these Antithesis coming from? Shouldn’t they have been trampled by this ‘Really big Antithesis’ of yours?” I grumbled.

  The fox shrugged. “I can smell it on the walls and ceilings, so it scraped its way through here. Maybe it can shift far enough to one side to allow the smaller Models to pass?”

  “If it was stopping that often, I’d think we’d be gaining on it instead of losing ground,” I snarled.

  Bandit just shrugged again. “I’m just telling you what my nose is telling me. I don’t know how or why it’s happening. If you want to identify or know more about this thing, that’s Nyx’s wheelhouse.”

  “Good point,” I mumbled. There really wasn’t much point in helping clear the way forward. The Antithesis were approaching in a constant stream of five to six a second. Exceptionally annoying, but absolutely no threat; The bears could easily handle numbers like that. The worst part of this situation, though, was that occasionally a Twenty-Three would come lumbering down the tunnel.

  My original plan was to shove everyone into the Kodiaks and just roll over the small stuff as we pursued whatever was causing the problems. That lasted all of about thirty seconds.

  When the column had just got up to speed, a Twenty-Three came barreling out of the darkness and slamed into the lead vehicle. It didn’t cause a lot of damage, but since it was already on top of the front vehicle, I couldn’t just spray it with the autocannons without causing more damage than good. In the end I needed Heavy to get out and deal with it personally.

  And, when the bear finally did dispatch it and slipped back inside, another of the monsters was already lunging at the front vehicle. We actually made less progress by trying to rush and letting the big monsters get close than we did marching in combat formation.

  The whole situation was so frustrating that I ended up marching behind the front lines so I could blow holes into the smaller models just to blow off some steam.

  After stepping off the frontlines, I casually hopped up on top of my command vehicle and knocked on the hatch. “Nyx, a word, if you please.”

  I heard a clattering inside, the sound of someone running around, and after a few seconds the hatch popped open and Nyx’s avatar popped its head out. “You know I’ve put a chip in your brain and can communicate with you directly. You don’t need to go find a bear for us to have a talk.”

  “I know, I just like actually talking to something. When you push messages directly into my head, and I reply out loud, I feel a little self-conscious. I probably look like a crazy person.”

  “You could finally learn to subvocalize, just like ninety-five point eight seven three percent of all the other samurai,” Nyx grumbled.

  “I could, but why bother when I’ve already set you up with a perfectly good body?” I said, patting the bear on the head. “I know you’ve been monitoring the situation, and you have all the information Bandit and the others have put together; you must have some guesses on what we’re dealing with.”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  “I have been, and I do,” Nyx said, pulling themselves up through the hatch. “Neither the size of the creature nor the ability to produce new Antithesis on the fly tells us much. You’ve already seen how titanic the higher-numbered Antithesis can get when facing the Forty-Three, and the Antithesis have an entire line of Models focused upon creating new Antithesis.”

  “They do?” I asked, surprised. “Then why bother with hives?”

  “Because the hives process biomass far more efficiently, and they can grow in both scale and complexity to produce newer, stronger Antithesis. The mobile hives are typically only used when frontline reinforcements are required,” Nyx replied.

  “I guess that makes some sort of sense,” I muttered. “Why haven’t I run into one before now?”

  “Honestly? I don’t know. If I had to guess, it’s been a combination of luck and the fact that your biggest battles have been direct assaults against large hive structures. In situations like that, the Antithesis tend to recycle the non-essential models so they can use that biomass to produce more combat-oriented models. Considering the number of twenties you’ve encountered in this city, I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t run into the occasional Twenty-Two before this siege is over.”

  “And that’s what you think we’re dealing with? A Twenty-Two?”

  “No, based upon Bandit’s estimation that it’s ‘very big’ and just barely fits through these tunnels, the fact that it can produce Twenty-Threes, which is impressive for such a minor infestation, and the fact that it’s capable of emitting such a powerful ECM means we’re probably dealing with some version of the Thirty-Two-S”

  “This is a minor infestation?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. “What would you consider a major infestation?”

  “Despite the fact that your planet is facing an unprecedented level of Antithesis activity, it would still be considered minor, even by protectorate standards. Moderate would be the loss of a continent or a worldwide infestation, like mars. Major would be the loss of a system. Critical would be the system is left alone long enough for the Antithesis to develop the ability to start new infestations using this system as a base.”

  “If that’s the scale for protectorate races, I’d hate to find out what the protectors consider major,” I muttered.

  “Loss of a galactic arm,” Nyx replied immediately.

  I stared at the bear for several seconds before deciding to just let that slide. “So, Thirty-Two-S?”

  Nyx nodded. “There doesn’t seem to be an analog anywhere on your planet. The closest I can find is a sea cucumber mixed with a fern, covered in hundreds of feather-like prehensile flagella.”

  “I… have no idea what that means,” I admitted.

  “Think of a worm that’s about five meters in diameter, twenty-five feet long, that’s covered in tiny tentacles, which it uses to move around,” Nyx clarified.

  “Gross. And something like that can birth Twenty-Threes?”

  “It has four birthing pods placed symmetrically around its back end, and it has an internal womb to birth a number of smaller Antithesis,” Nyx said.

  “And it can birth all these on the move?”

  “If it needs to, there’s a chance that anything it discharges on the move will be injured in the birthing process,” Nyx reported. “One of the most impressive things about the Thirty-Two-S is that it can use a large percent of its own mass in the birthing process. It’ll shrink significantly over time but will continue spitting out models until it shrivels up from lack of nutrition.”

  “Ewww… gross,” I gagged. “And you think it’s this specific model because of the ECM?”

  “The Thirty-Two-S’s nervous system is fairly unique. It’s a distributed system, with multiple redundancies, which is far more robust than any other Antithesis of its tier. Normally that wouldn’t be an issue, but the ‘animal’ that it’s based upon, and I use that word loosely, emitted a weak EM signal, which allowed colonies of these creatures to create a sort of local hive mind. The Antithesis managed to turn this into a powerful ECM system.”

  “Great… so it’s titanic, can move extremely quickly, reproduce, and is nearly impossible to kill. Is there any good news?” I grumbled.

  “They’re completely brainless.”

  “You just told me they have a robust nervous system,” I said., “How can it possibly be brainless?”

  “There’s a difference between robust and complex. It has tightly packed neurons, but they’re like jellyfish. The nerves allow it to move and react to outside stimuli, but little else. They require outside help to function,” Nyx explained.

  I tilted my head to the side. “You’re talking about the fucking Seventeens, aren’t you?”

  “Indeed. Without a Seventeen to control it, the Thirty-Two-S can do little more than feed on what’s put in front of it and reproduce. If the creature has a weakness, it’s the reliance on Seventeens. If you sever the connection, you can pick it apart at your leisure.”

  “Then I have a plan,” I exclaimed.

  A sudden gust of cold air caused me to turn and look back at the tunnel. I was sure that it had been completely black just a moment ago now there were a couple rays of early morning sunlight peeking in from ahead as if welcoming me to the end.

  Or as if something big had just stopped blocking the exit.

  “Nyx, can you get on the radio and relay our position to everyone?” I said, eyes locked on the exit. “I have a feeling we weren’t as far behind as I thought, and I’m sure there are plenty of people that would like a piece of this oversized worm.”

  “With pleasure,” my AI replied.

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