“So that’s why you shouldn’t use soniitions without proper preparation,” the woman beside me decred.

  “Ummm… Don’t take this the wrong way, I appreciate the pany, but how the hell are you able to stao me? My suit is rated for extreme pressure and temperature, and it’s still running hot,” I asked, fused. “Everyone else is waiting further up the tuo avoid the psma drill’s exhaust.”

  A few feet in front of us, Deep Six, the mining specialist we’d brought in was literally vaporizing rock with a psma bore. The tunnel was cut at a thirty-five degree ao both get deep enough, and allow us to maintain bance while we advanced. I was running support, because I was the only other ohat could get close to the rig without vaporizing myself, at least that’s what I thought, until Magpie casually walked dowunnel and started up a versation. I was wearing a ten foot, heavily reinforced suit, and she was wearing nothing more than a skintight wingsuit. She should have been ied by the heat.

  “Pffff… it’s just a little insution, mixed with temperature regution, and a little ic shielding,” she replied with a flick of her wrist. “Pretty basic stuff, really.”

  “Right? And why did you buy all that stuff to e talk to me instead of waiting with the others?”

  “Because back there,” she said, throwing a thumb back at the tunnel, “is the biggest group of sticks-in-the-mud you’ll find on the west coast. All they want to do is talk strategy and prepare for the raid; The way they’re talking, you’d think the world is ing to an end.”

  I had to stare at her for a moment. We were literally standing in a tunnel created out of melted rock, heading towards probably one of the stro antithesis the world had ever seen, and she ag about ranting about how no one wao chat.

  “They’re probably just worried about what we’ll face below,” I told her. “You do know what’s belht?”

  “Of course! That’s why I’m here!” Magpie proudly decred. “I’m just tired of w with those worry-warts all the time. It’s always emergency this, and world ending that.” She sighed. “Not a single one of them has a sense of humor.”

  “Wait… you’ve worked with them before?” I asked, gng back up the tunnel. “I only know them by reputation. Dreamer shows up at the headquarters occasionally, but I’ve never seen her actually fight anything.”

  “That’s because strong samurai normally don’t participate in regur incursions,” Magpie replied. “It’s better to leave them to the new samurai, so they learn and gain some retively easy points. The elites tend to go out and bust hives in the wilderness or deal with situations like this. It wouldn’t be so bad if any of them had a personality!” she said, gesturing back up the tunnel. After a moment, she twirled bad looked at me. “Except Dreamer, she be fun sometimes.”

  “I thought you specialized in Css I catalogs,” I said, slightly baffled. “Why are you w with the heavyweights?”

  “Just because I specialize in Css I tech doesn’t mean that’s all I have to offer,” Magpie replied. I could practically hear her pouting through her helmet.

  “Right… Well, could you tell me more about the group we’re w with? I only know most of them by reputation,” I told her. “And I could really use something to distract me from what’s ahead.”

  “Not a fan of tunnels, eh? I uand that,” Magpie said, nodding sagely. “Sure, I’ll spill the beans about our patriots, if it’ll put your mind at ease.”

  “You know Dreamer, right? She’s supposedly a bigwig in Calgary, although I’m not sure why anyone would trust her with important matters. Quite a fun person to hang out with, a little scatter brained, but who isn’t? Fits her Ali Wondernd theme quite well though.” She gnced back up the tuhen leaned in close, “Apparently she put a perception filter in to deal with the trauma of dealing with a couple promised shelters. Couldn’t deal with all the death. DONT piss her off, she uses shattered quantum portals to fight, it not only effortlessly cuts antithesis into pieces, but rearrahem into horrific refigurations.”

  She sighed. “I normally like w with her, but it's just unfortuhat we have to look at the aftermath of her fights, while she tuhem out.” Magpie paused for a moment, then shook her head. “Anyways, from Edmonton we have Grey Goo ailence. Goo uses nanites extensively. She uses them as skin tight armor, ons, and to rearrahe area to fit her needs. She actually be pretty scary, so don’t call her Goo to her face, she doesn’t like that. Pestilence was the ohat looked like a metallic skeleton, with bubbling green vials and tanks stig out of him. He specializes in sampling the local strains of antithesis, theing pathogens to kill them. He hasn’t killed anyone… yet, but I’d keep your helmet on around him,” she said seriously.

  “Finally, we have Temporal and Executable, from Vancouver. Temporal is the ohat looks like she belongs in one of those neobiker gangs. I ’t believe that she runs around with purple and neon green hair and no one says anything!” she grumbled. “Anyways, Temporal has tech, which allows her to speed up and slow down time in local areas. Pretty good at supp a group, so she gets invited everywhere, despite her fashion choices. Executable oher hand…” she paused for a moment, as if trying to figure out how to describe him. “He’s well, the giant floating ball. The dude apparently fully ied himself into the mesh and got rid of his physical body. The murder ball is fun and all, but the dude has absolutely no personality since he went digital.” After she was done expining, Magpie stopped and turowards me. “Any questions?”

  “Why am I here?” I asked bnkly.

  “Don't sell yourself short! You may not be a top tier samurai yet, but both you and Teddy have already developed a reputation for being reliable. Plus, you both got quite a jumpstart in your careers when you helped deal with the Seattle hive cluster. Most samurai o work for months, or years, to make points like that,” Magpie replied. “Graeddy has also developed a reputation for being hard to deal with sometimes.”

  I chuckled, “Yeah, I see that. I’m sure it doesn’t help that she doesn’t like Mirage all that much.”

  “Approag Tunnel Level!” Deep Six suddenly yelled. “I’ve been able to identify a breach point, two minutes!” The call out actually surprised me.The man had been so quiet while he was monit the drill, at some points I’d almost fotten he was there.

  “Woo! Testing time!” Magpie cheered, throwing her arms into the air. “’t wait to see how the antithesis handle my catalogs.”

  I watched her jump excitedly for a minute. “How you get excited about this? When I think about those tunnels, I just get a sense of dread thinking about what’s ahead.”

  “Why? We fight some of the worst monstrosities in the universe on a nearly daily basis. So what if there’s something no one has fought before down there, or we have to fight in an enclosed space? At the end of the day, it’s just part of the job,” she said.

  “You know, that’s actually not that f,” I grumbled.

  She turned bae. I could see surprise through her visor. “It’s not? How about the fact that we may be saving the world if we succeed?” she asked.

  “That’s what’s driving me forward, but it still doesn’t make this situation aerrifying,” I replied.

  “Look at where you are right now. We’re about to step into one of the rgest antithesis hives we’ve ever discovered, yet you’re still pushing forward, despite your fears. That takes real ce,” Magpie said, patting me on the back. “I know it might seem like the fate of the world relies on our as here today, but don’t worry. We left up top for a reason. If we fail, he just flood the tunnels with several million liters of hydrofluoric acid to burhing out.”

  I stared at her in horror for a minute, as I realized she wasn’t joking. “Right, no pressure.”