"We don't give humanity a list of all known antithesis organisms because the list is hundreds of millions of entries long and changing at a rate of several thousand a second. The list of numbered models we provide is enough to cover 95.78% of antithesis encounters."

  "What about the other 5%?"

  "3.6% are little to be concerned about, functionally similar to an existing numbered model. The rest? I'd recommend praying to whatever gods you believe in."

  — Protector AI Nethys, fielding questions with reporters in 2039

  Not long afterwards the swarm once again died down to a trickle, leaving the way mostly clear as they made the final approach. They rounded the corner of one of the downtown megabuildings, stepping out from the shadows of one of the huge skybridges that connected it to its twin next door. This area of Madison was where some of the least well off lived, packed into cramped apartments. Often living, shopping and working in the same huge building, or being forced to trek over to the richer areas to wait on corporate drones hand and foot.

  The building where the hive was location was a decrepit highrise with many missing walls, smashed windows and covered in blood and green sap. A few antithesis stragglers dragged corpses, human and alien alike, in through one of the numerous holes into the darkness beyond. To the west the huge main road stretched off into the distance. While to the east towards the capitol building it went a short distance before turning behind another megabuilding a little further down.

  Dog meandered towards the hive building, giving the outside a sniff before letting out a deep, thrumming growl. Her eyes locked on one of the holes in the walls. Quinn, Elliot and Blade Dancer approached slowly, scanning the surroundings for any signs of life, hostile or otherwise.

  "Where the fuck are they?" Blade Dancer hissed. She held up her hands in an stylistic ready pose almost like a martials arts stance. But not like any that Quinn had seen in the few vids she'd seen. Her rifle was slung across her back by the strap now, which weaved between new bulky plates covering her shoulders.

  "Underground, likely massing for a retaliation once we attempt an assault." Elliot responded, walking over to peer into the hole Dog was still eyeing. "I think I'm going to need some night vision or something for this one."

  "Guys?" Vixinertia called out, voice layered with a wavering tone of concern. "The plants hitting downtown turned around at some point, they're getting pretty close."

  Elliot's gaze hardened "Copy. Quinn you still good to hold them up top?"

  Vixinertia touched down lightly nearby "I don't think we should leave her alone up here, there's a fuck of a lot of them." She glanced back down the street east, shifting on the spot. "I'll stay, I'm better in an open environment anyway."

  "Fine." Elliot scrunched up the corner of his mouth. "Dakka, Dancer, you ready to go?"

  Dancer just nodded, while Rex patted the side of his reptilian companion. "Time to show off your pack hunting form girl". There was an explosion of steam, obscuring vision briefly, before revealing a cow sized, lither form of Dog that padded up to Rex and shoved her head into his left hand.

  Rex scritched her ear briefly, then clicked his tongue. Dog bounded forward into the darkness and he followed soon after, with Blade Dancer slipping in behind. Elliot shook off his momentary distraction from something and gave Quinn a slight smile. "Stay safe, kick some ass for me, yeah?" Before following the other two in.

  Quinn glanced at Vixinertia, who was once again twirling her hammer like a baton, before talking direct to Irys. "Can we show her the trajectories like on the flight over? I want to avoid friendly fire."

  "You'll need to purchase a catalog and dedicated AI to do the calculations, Darling, but your suit can run it without any other additions."

  "Do it."

  New Purchase: Tactical Combat AI Catalog - Class 1

  Cost: 50. Points reduced to... 3420

  New Purchase: Ballistics Calculation AI - Class 1

  Cost: 30. Points reduced to... 3290

  Moments later a new option to display trajectories popped up in her view, and a crosshairs appeared in her vision where her laser rifle barrel led. A quick flick of the information mentally to Vixinertia and she perked up from where she'd been pacing nervously to give a terse, but still thankful sounding "Appreciate you not shooting me in the back." before jetting up to stand on the underside of a concrete landing pad on one of the higher stories of a nearby building.

  Quinn resisted the urge to bounce from foot to foot as they waited, not wanting to damage the road any more than neccessary. Thankfully she didn't have to wait long.

  At first came the usual horde of model-3s and model-4s. A tide of bitey dog like aliens and the larger flailing tentacled bears swarming around. It was a far weaker swarm than the fight to the hive, and a sweep of her laser rifle combined with a couple of plasma blasts and aerial assistance from Vixinertia quickly reduced the antithesis to a disorganized rabble. Quinn was quickly loving the ballistics calculation AI, as it was highlighting the estimated area of effect of the plasma as it charged, and she leant on that information to place precisely charged shots with just enough charge to cook groups without wasting time.

  It wasn't long before the situation escalated, as a pack of model-6s rounded the corner in a loose formation. They looked a little different from the ones Quinn had fought recently, with a set of much bigger, shovel like tusks that proportionally reminded her of a boar from the hologames, rather than the stereotypical "orc" sized tusks. Deciding that the smattering of smaller models were small enough to ignore for now, she brought her weapons to bear on the newer threats, pouring flashing pulses of laser fire into one while charging a larger plasma disk.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Vixinertia joined the fight more directly moments later, an overheaded strike with her hammer blasting a vicious looking hole in one of the model-6s. It staggered on its feet from the blow, but quickly recovered enough to lunge at her in a rising sweep with its tusks. She hopped back, the movement taking her far further than it should, before grabbing a small oval in her left hand. A button click, forward dive slightly to its injured side, and a overhand dunk later and she pushed off into the air again, moments before a muted whump sent bits of antithesis splattering over its fellows.

  A few of the model-6s turned and broke off of the charge towards Quinn to pursue the new threat, while the rest continued to barrel straight at the larger target.

  Quinn let the white hot plasma disc fly, striking the side of the model-6 in front. It immediately collapsed, half its torso turned to char, and the one slightly behind it scrabbled to keep upright as one side was flash fried into uselessness. Taking advantage of its cracked and warped plating she raked her laser fire over the blackened plant flesh, puncturing deep enough into its softer internals that it soon came sliding to a dead stop.

  There were still several of the beasts still coming, one smashing through a garish neon sign that denoted some ground level cheap eatery. Quinn backpeddled, trying to put enough distance between her and them to gun them down before they reached her. It was about at this moment she got the warning of her laser rifle beginning to reach heat capacity. She swore and triggered the external heat sinks, wavering hot air disrupting a small portion of her vision as the hexagons rotated out and started venting.

  "Quinn, back weapon." came Irys' clipped reminder. She resisted the urge to slap herself while shifting her shoulder to deploy the long barrel, adjusting her torso to line up a shot on the lead model-6.

  "Recoil, Darl…" Irys didn't get her warning out before Quinn pulled the trigger. There was a brief hum as energy arced down the coils before a loud boom sent her stumbling back, wheeling her small set of arms desperately for balance, crushing a few of the smaller models that had been trying to nip at her armored heels.

  A few staggering steps and she managed to regain her footing, just to be forced to lurch right to avoid the charge of one of the model-6 still standing. The attempt at a dodge wasnt enough, and for the second time today she felt her upper left arm go dead as it ripped at the joint with pointed tusks before its momentum took it past her.

  It wheeled round, far more agile than a beast of its size had any right to be, and lunged at her again with tusks aimed at her center. With both lower arms she grabbed the thing by the tusks as it came at her, feet screeching against the cracked asphalt as it pushed her back. She stuck her laser rifle, thankfully cooled down to usable again, into the things mouth and let rip. After a few seconds of continuous fire the thing lost its strength, and she roughly threw its corpse to the side.

  Turning back around, she couldn't see any more larger models remaining, Vixinertia having apparently slain the couple that had turned on her. Quinn took the opportunity to start clearing the smaller fry that were still swarming lightly around her, many of them ineffectually attempting to pry at her lower armor or gnaw on metal. Her lower arms wern't near as bulky as the weapon arms, but they could still handily punch, squish or throw the model-3s and model-4s that had gotten too close for the rifle.

  Vixinertia sailed over as Quinn deployed her repair drones once again, clearly glancing at the once again mauled left side. "Fucking hell Maiden, do you not know how to dodge?" She quipped, blasting a few model-4s that had snuck nearly into the building at the entrance to the hive.

  Quinn stepped back to place herself in front of the largest hole, crushing a few concrete bits into powder under her feet. "This thing isn't exactly made for the type of wierd ass dodging you do, Vix."

  Vixinertia hopped up to land on Quinn's shoulder, a small smirk on her face. "Vix, I like that. You know what, fuck it. Vyshnu how much would it cost to get her a momentum drive that would work on the mech?"

  A new voice piped up in their communications, a deep baritone that gave the impression of old wisdom "400 points and a token for the catalog, and then 300 for the drive. The catalog is one I would have advised for you eventually, given your current direction. A combat installation would take another 100 points, however."

  Quinn started to protest before Vixinertia cut her off. "No time for debate, Do it, its worth it to keep our heavy hitter on her feet." She glanced at one of the mech's sensors and gave a cheeky smile and a wink, before hopping into light swarm below. "She can owe me one for another time."

  "Hold your torso still, darling, this should only take a second." Quinn froze, allowing a couple of model-3s to start scrabbling up her leg until she felt a slight pinch as Something settled within her from nowhere. She grabbed a dog alien in each hand and smashed them together in a crunch before dropping them. "Thanks, Vix. What exactly does this do?"

  Vixinertia suddenly skated left over the ground for several meters, a thoroughly unnatural movement that left the plants lunging at her previous position confounded as she took another's head off with her hammer. "Like that, sorta. generates a whole bunch of momentum in a direction briefly, overriding whatever vector you were on before. I noticed you sucked at dodging so I figured you could use the help."

  "Thanks, I guess" Quinn sarcastically quipped back, but she made no effort to hide the smile in her voice and Vixinertia just cackled.

  It felt like a finger somewhere in her back she could wiggle anywhere in the horizontal plane. She experimentally shifted it right, and suddenly she was rocketing to her right side for a fraction of a second before coming to an abrupt halt. A model-4 that had been clinging on was abruptly thrown from her, impacting a street pole with a slight squelch. She had moved a good 10 feet right, and used the opportunity to throw a quick plasma blast into the swarm where she had been standing a second or so ago. Experimentally she tried shifting backwards, only to find a new resistance that prevented her from doing so so soon afterwards.

  She took the opportunity to call into the hive team. "How's things going down there? we've not run into anything too spooky up here."

  There was a few seconds pause before a sultry, teasing female voice responded. "The pace is picking up here, and we're thrusting deep. Did run into a few snags, but resistance is normal for ones first time. Once we penetrate the hive's birthing chamber, we'll just need a few minutes to drop our load and pull out. Should be done within about 5 minutes, this is just a quickie."

  Quinn raised a metaphorical eyebrow. "Thanks, uh.."

  "Aphrodyte, sweet thing, a pleasure to meet you. I take care of Rex Dakka's every need."

  Yeah, that made sense to Quinn.

  "Thanks for the update, keep us posted?"

  "I'll make sure you don't miss a second."

  They had a couple of minutes of reletive rest with only a couple of stragglers to take potshots at. Quinn took the opportunity to plug a chunk of the buildings holes with C-foam, not wanting to let too many of the small fry through to harrass her friends while dealing with bigger threats.

  Soon enough distant thumping once again alerted them to a renewed assault. A few moments later another pair of model-6 rounded the corner of the road and came barreling towards them. Quinn, having learned her lesson from last time, crouched down briefly as she unfolded her back weapon, steadying herself before firing this time. She felt the recoil push against her, but stayed steady as she watched one of the two model-6s collapse with a smoking hole drilled in through its head. Taking stock of the second, she pushed forward, crushing numerous small models underfoot as she countercharged fhe remaining model-6. Just before they would impact, she used her new ability to veer to the side before unleashing the plasma shot she had been charging, cooking it and a number of small antithesis instantly. Damn, she really needed to find a way to pay Vix back for this one.

  She was just beginning to think how this seemed to be getting easier when the first wave of dizziness and nausea hit her like a freight train.