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

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

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

  I reached back and felt Spooky place the railgun into my hand. Placing the gun on the nearest sandbag, sighted one side of the bulldozer, and fired. There was a deep, metallic impact sound as one side of the blade exploded, exposing the body of the creature.

  From my left Humboldt opened fire. Her new lasers cut into the now exposed Antithesis. It seemed to be ineffective at first, but as soon as the array focused on a single point they started cutting through the carapace. All three insectoid legs on that side were quickly severed, leaving the beast trying to advance with only its right side, causing it to spin in place. Once it 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 back and spat out some sort of giant organic bolas, 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 last moment I threw my arm over my face and ducked down, trying to protect myself from damage.

  It turned out, I didn’t need to. 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 confused, and for the first time realised Mirage was behind me. He was surrounded in a halo of light, he had one futuristic gauntlet pointed up at the wall.

  As soon as he dropped his hand the wall disappeared. Our eyes met for a moment, and he flashed a smile which made my skin crawl, “You need to 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 can’t be one hundred percent sure, I think that was a hardlight projection.

  “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 similar to fragmentation shells, very dangerous to densely packed areas.

  “Of course they fucking are,” I grumbled, “because nothing can 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 converging on our location, the dead one could wait.

  —

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

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  Once we got closer, I started to see a lot of similarities to a model I was very familiar with. Six eyes, segmented armor, and six tree trunk like legs. Unlike the Twelves I was familiar with, this one had a pair of huge armored crab like claws, which I had mistaken as a bulldozer blade from a distance, and a hard, fan-like tail. I crouched down and poked 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 classified them, based upon the order encountered, but this system has issues. The antithesis have millions of different models, most of which are just slight mutations to the basic template, but specialized for a different environment. The O variants, for example, operate better in aquatic environments.

  “Wonderful, can 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 clean them. “And let them know I’ll be indisposed until the next shelter.”

  “Can do.” I’m sure the bear would have given me a thumbs 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 enhancement and defences. Well, I’ll talk to you at the next site, good luck.”

  I waved at her and climbed into the cab of my 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?”

  Genetics, which would change your DNA, or Bionics, which will replace your body parts with synthetic replacements. You decided against Cybernetics.

  “I assume there are pros and cons for both”

  Correct, genetics will have more profound effects, but will have more profound side effects. Regeneration, for example, will allow you to regrow lost limbs and organs fairly quickly, but will also supercharge your metabolism. Some of the stronger limbs may have a more inhuman appearance.

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

  I nodded and considered my options for a moment. “Let’s go with Bionics then, I may be limiting my options in the future, but I’d prefer to avoid any major changes to my appearance.”

  In that case I recommend the following, a Class I Bionic Muscle Enhancement catalog for the Mark I Synthetic Finesse muscles, the Class I Bionic Skeletal Enhancement catalog for the Mark I Lightweight Synthetic bones, and the Class I Bionic Healing Enhancement catalog for the Mark I Universal blood cell replacement. One hundred points for each catalog, then two hundred for each enhancement. Twelve hundred fifty points in total.

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

  The healing method I suggested replaces your bone marrow so your system will no longer create different blood cells, but a single cell type which performs all the same functions. Not quite as effective as nanites or straight up regeneration, but exponentially faster healing than the human norm. It can be done to your original bones, but that is more painful, and the cell reproduction is more effective when paired with Synthetic bones.

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

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

  Purchased

  Class I Bionic Muscle Enhancement catalog - 100 points

  Mark I Synthetic Finesse arm muscles - 100x2 - 200 points

  Mark I Synthetic Finesse Leg muscles - 150x2 - 300 points

  Class I Bionic Skeletal Enhancement catalog - 100 points

  Mark I Lightweight Synthetic bones - 250 points

  Class I Bionic Healing Enhancement catalog - 100 points

  Mark I Universal blood cell replacement - 200 points

  Points remaining - 317

  A single, small box appeared on my lap. Confused, I opened it to find a single metal hoop with a couple vials of liquid screwed into the side. “The hell is this?”

  The change will be… uncomfortable. It can’t be done instantly like cybernetics, so the best option would be to put you to sleep while the changes occur. The cuff will allow me to put you to sleep, then wake you when the process is complete. I recommend laying on the bench in the back while it’s happening

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

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

  Don’t worry, everything is under control.

  My last conscious thought was that I needed to teach Nyx what flags were, so they could avoid triggering them in the future.

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