It took a while to find our way back to Jesse and Whisperer. The tunnel system was extremely plicated, a maze of nearly identical juns and uniform tunnels. If it wasn’t for Red keeping us on track, we definitely would have taken a wrong turn and gotten lost.

  “Red!” Whisperer yelled. She threw her arms around the massive wolf the instant we arrived, half burying herself in his neck fur.

  “We’re fihanks for asking,” I mumbled, stepping around the massive wolf. “How did things go here?”

  “It retty quiet after you all ran off,” Jesse reported. “A couple of antithesis wandered our way, but nothing we couldn’t handle. Did you mao catch the Seventeens?”

  Tina nodded vigorously, “Squashed ft, along with a couple fourteens and whatever reinforts they mao birth out of that ugly mobile hive of theirs.”

  “Good, let's hope that’ll be enough to slow down those raids of theirs. I’d hate to find out that you went through all that effort, only to find out there’s anroup out there,” Whisperer said as she finally stepped away from her oversized pet.

  I winced, “Please don’t jinx us. We chased down the Seventeens in order to make up time, I’d hate to find out it was just a waste.”

  “It wasn’t a waste,” Jesse corrected. “Even if there are multiple groups, you mao thin them out a little. Every little bit helps.” I shot him a gre, whio one could see through my helmet, but he seemed to get the message because he cleared his throat. “The bears cleared the wo blockades while you were out, so we advance as soon as everyone’s ready.”

  “Let’s push forward then,” Whisperer decred. She quickly walked up to the half melted wall, took a quick look into the space beyond, before stepping through. The rest of us followed after a few seds, moving deeper into the tunnel system.

  Our advance was surprisingly smooth. We moved through four tunnel segments, without any issue, slowly cutting our way through the barriers, until we came to something new.

  As soon as the bears started cutting through the polymer, one of the bears caught a Model Four’s tentacle to the face. Everytime an opening was cut, the creatures shed out, trying to prevent us from getting through.

  After the fourth attempt, I started getting annoyed.

  “Tina, would you please introduce these troublemakers to your spiders?” I asked. “I’d like to get through here sometime today.”

  “Got it,” the girl replied as she flicked her hand at the wall.

  A moment ter her army of dog-sized meical spiders surged forward. The standard models crawled right up the holes, and sprayed the tentacles with a stream of acid, quickly burning the offending limbs off. Ohey had an opening, they began to squeeze through, chasing the antithesis oher side.

  The bears didn’t need any prompting. Even though some of them were still undergoing self-repair cycles from the damage they took from the Model Fours, they jumped ba the wall, cutting a wider opening.

  As the first bears stepped through the breach, clearing the wave at the entrance, I stuck my head in to check out the situation. Beyond the gash, was a massive cavern filled with antithesis. It wasn’t wide, maybe thirty feet across, but it was hundreds of meters long. The ter of the room was filled with a bizarre looking bramble like structure, which was still intact. I could see a huge wave of low level antithesis charging from the far side of the hedge, backed up by a couple Twelves ferrying reinforts to the line, and a dozen or so Fifteens at the back.

  I ducked back just as one of the long necked bastards spat a huge hairy ball across the room, which exploded into thousands of razor sharp quills on impact. I watched as a pair of my bears fell, uo cope with the quills embedded deep within their exoskeletons.

  “Guess they didn’t like us killing off the harassment team,” I murmured as I turned back to the team. “ Red withstand sustained hits from Fifteens?” I asked Whisperer.

  “He take a couple, but not many, that shit cuts through tanks. The only ohat has like that is Tiny, and he’s not here,” she replied.

  “I could cut them down with my psma on,” Jesse volunteered. “My armor should be able to take a hit or two from a Fifteen.”

  There was another series of cracks, this time taking out more than a half dozen bears at once. “We’re fag more than one or two,” I said with a grimace. “ you reinforce your armor more before stepping out?” He paused for a moment, then nodded.

  Wheuro discuss the situation with his AI, I turowards Spooky. “Nyx, I need a distra, what I equip on Heavy and his friends to help them draw fire in there?”

  If you want it to be fshy, I reend some Css I ‘LightShow’ rotary ser ons. They’d normally have a limited battery life, and only kick out enough damage to cut through Model Sixes, but if you added a portable geor you could overcharge the ons.

  “ I afford that? I had a severe ck of points before ing in here,” I reminded my AI.

  And you’ve killed a LOT of antithesis sihen. Even with the split, you’ve built up quite a bit of points. Just over four thousand. Buying the required catalogs, and equipment, will put you back seven hundred.

  I didn’t have to think long. In the few seds we’d been discussing there had been several more cracks outside, resulting in multiple bears going dark. “Do it.”

  A sed ter a series of boxes appeared on the ground, which Heavy and the moose immediately ripped apart. Eae of them threw on an oversized armored backpack, then plugged it into a massive, three barrel ser gun.

  Whisperer saw my bears gearing up, so she turowards Jesse, who now had a massive riot shield attached to his armature. “Don’t do anything stupid. Wait for the distra, step out, and take your shot. If you don’t get them all, step bato cover. No point in wasting your life.”

  The rge man nodded as he swung his heavy on and shield bo forward. I wasn’t sure what would be able to pee his forward defenses now, but I guess it was better safe than sorry.

  With Jesse set up, I silently sent the and to Heavy to proceed. He and the moose had to squeeze to fit through the opening, but as soon as they stepped through the entire area lit up. The ser ons spat out thousands of bsts a minute, which swiftly cut through the slowly thinning antithesis front line. In respohe Fifteens shifted their focus to the bigger bots, raining their biological warheads down on the area. I watched in satisfa as round after round, quill after quill, bounced off their reinforced exoskeletons. Ohey were a suffit distance from the opening I nodded back towards Jesse. “Go Now.”

  With a surprising amount of speed Jesse stepped through the hole, dropped into a firing stand sighted the mob at the far side of the room. One Fifteen seemed to uand that it was in danger, and started to turn, but it was already too te. A massive fre lit up the room for several seds, as Jesse’s psma on raked the back of the area, spewing superheated matter over everything. When he was dohe far back er of the room had pletely melted, everythiween there and Jesse was vaporized.

  “Clear!” Jesse called bato the corridor as he carefully raised his on, which was both glowing and smoking at this point.

  Tina was the first oo poke her head out. “Holy shit! I didn’t know that thing had a sustained mode,” she muttered in awe.

  “It was dangerous to do before I installed the cooling system, and I still had to bypass the safety protocols, but sometimes it’s worth it,” he replied casually.

  “It certainly was effective, well done,” Whisperer said, as she stepped out .

  While they were surveying the dead antithesis, I was cheg out the damage our side took. Almost three full squads of bears disabled by quills embedded so deeply into their vital ses that the auto repair couldn’t keep them up. I could see most would recover, eventually, but not all of them. My fiwitched as I stared at the pile of bears, I didly want to just leave them there but what could I do?

  Nyx stepped up to me, in Spooky’s body. Want some pliers?