Although my forces had been severely depleted, there were still enough bears to form a defensive line once Heavy cleared the wall. Things were a little hairy for a while, si took me several long mio clear the excess antithesis flesh out of my impromptu fortifications and fill in the cracks and holes, so no antithesis could sneak in. There was no way I could actually salvage the walls, they’d been too badly bent and broken to fix, so I had to stuff some insta from my Area Denial Catalog into the gaps.
By the time I climbed back up to the walls, to che the bears, I was a little exhausted. I expected to see Temporal at the top, helping trol the battlefield from the same perch she was standing at earlier, but instead I found Magpie, ung some sort of orb off the parapets with a crooked stick.
“Hey… What are you doing up here?” I asked as I weaved my way towards her.
“Golfing! I just bought the catalog for it. Fasating game, apparently it was super popur before the antithesis came,” she replied.
“And Temporal?”
“She and the others are taking turns upgrading their gear. I offered to let them use my catalogs, so apparently it’s going to take a couple minutes… We did discuss it in the group chat, apparently you were too distracted by the walls and missed it,” Magpie said with a shrug. While I watched she lined up with another orb, wound up, and smashed it deep into the mass of antithesis. A moment ter, a huge explosion ripped through that area.
I immediately g the row of different orbs lined up on the wall. “What exactly are you golfing?” I asked with dread.
“Grenades, of course. I have them set up with a proximity sensor, so they ’t explode until they get a certain distance from me. Perfectly safe! I still haven’t decided if the delivery method is effective or not,” she replied, smashing anrenade off the wall.
“Please don’t blow yourself up,” I pleaded, taking a step back.
“I won’t, probably,” she replied. After smashing o grenade, she stepped down off her ptform, and turowards me. “So… Now that you have that token, are you going to buy that on?” she asked.
“That was the pn,” I said. “Why?”
“It didn’t seem like you were super enthusiastic with the idea in the chat. Was it really something you wao do?” Magpie asked, stepping closer and croug down so she was looking me in the face.
“Well… it’s probably our best bet to deal with that thing, isn’t it?” I snapped. “No one else had any way to deal with it.”
“No one else had a way to deal with it YET,” Magpie corrected. “There are almost a dozen samurai down here iunnels, and when our back is against the wall like this, every single one of us develop ways to deal with the situation. Just like that,” she said, pointing over my shoulder.
I gnced back, unsure what she could be pointing at, and nearly fell over in shock. There was a massive, vaguely-humanoid, grey mass t over the side of my wall. “Think you ignore my nanites?” Grey’s voice echoed out of the mass, “Ighis!” One of the huge fluid arms smmed down oithesis liheed into hundreds of spikes that shot out in every dire. A few seds ter, the arm raised, leaving a huge gap iithesis lines.
“Every single one of us has our own strengths and weaknesses,” Magpie expihrowing one arm around my shoulder auring to the area where the rest of the squad was waiting. “Don’t feel like you o be pushed into buying something that doesn’t fit your build. As samurai, we always find a way in the end.”
“Is that why you always stick to css I catalogs? To prove that fact?” I asked with a slight smile.
“Nope. I just like catalogs,” she replied with a smirk before returning tolf game. “If you want to upgrade something, now is the time. That Bob of yours is keeping things stable out front, and I have a feeling the others are going to want to push out ohey finish upgrading,” she said as she smacked anrenade off my wall. “I mentio earlier, but feel free to use my catalogs, you might not have another ce for a while.”
“Thanks?” I said awkwardly.
“You’re wele!” she called back without taking her eyes off her game.
I slid down the dder, bato the small courtyard. Just staring at the empty space for a minute.
“Nyx, what are your thoughts about what Magpie said up there?”
She’s ly wrong. Although another UHR would probably be quite helpful in clearing up the other hives, it’s up to you if you want to i in one.
“Fug… I don’t know. I feel like I should, sidering I already told the others I would, but oher hand, it’s ly something I’d use on a regur basis.”
Then perhaps a promise? You’ve already unlocked the Css II Linear Accelerator Catalog, you could buy one of the rger models from that. Although they ck the raw destructive power of the UHR, they may be suffit for your needs.
“Now that’s something I get behind. How big are we talking about?” I asked.
The rgest would match the UHR for size but would pack a signifitly weaker punch. There are also a number of smaller empts, along with vehicle-mounted options, Nyx reported. These ons be further augmented by the munitions catalogs you unlocked before.
“What’s the smallest model capable of taking down the sedary hives?”
The Devastator could, in theory, take down those pilrs, but it would take a signifit amount of time. If you wao be effit, you’d need a vehicle-mounted model. For maximum efficy, the ‘Shellstorm’ repeating coil gun has the same punch as the ‘Devastator’ but at a much higher rate of fire. Unfortunately, I do not reend mounting one on the Grizzly IFVs, their Css I chassis would not be able to hahe strain.
“Which means using aoken to unloething capable of supp it,” I grumbled.
But spending that ooken now will lead you t more tokens in the near future. All you o do in order to recover is topple a single one of those pilrs, Nyx reminded me. If you don’t want to mount it on an IFV, I always suggest one of the towed or wall-mounted guns instead. Although this seems like a more eical option, I’d actually advise against it. With access to Magpie’s catalogues, I could make a signifit number of minrades to the IFV models, at little to no cost. The stationary models wouldn’t be nearly as much.
“No, fuck it, you’re right. As useful as the UHR was, it had some signifit downsides, and the IFVs have proven themselves against the Twelves and Fourteens ile. If I i in an upgunned version, it’ll give my squads a lot more staying power in the long run. What sort of costs would I be looking like for the…”
Kodiak. The Css II Armored Vehicle Catalog will cost you five hundred and a token, then it’ll be approximately twenty-five hundred for the chassis, and an additional five hundred for the gun. That includes a hull-mounted PAWS, along with numerous upgrades from your friend, including advanced armor, improved targeting sensors, a boosted drive system, and a huher small tweaks.
“Isnt’ that…”
Approximately three times the cost of the Grizzly model, if you include the gun. It is more than worth it for the improved performance. sidering you would lose access to Magpie’s catalogs after this battle, I’d even reend you buy the blueprint now.
“Do I have enough for that?”
You absolutely do, but it would put the UHR, or other Css III catalogs, out of your price range for a while. That being said, with the number of Twenty-Threes, and Twes around, you’ll probably make those points back, even after the ten-lit.
“Fuck it, lets do it.”
Purchased
Css II Armored Vehicle Catalog - 500 points - 1 Token
Modified Kodiak IFV (Shellstorm variant) - 3000 points
Modified Kodiak IFV (Shellstorm variant) Blueprint - 30k points
Points remaining: 37,245
The vehicle that appeared was simir to the Grizzly I was familiar with, but slightly rger and with sleeker lines. Its most eye-catg feature was defihe massive coil gun mounted iurret, which looked like a bination of the ‘Devastator’ Heavy was lugging around and the auto ons on the rizzly models.
Satisfied with the mae, I immediately summoned Spooky and Dusty to pilot the thing. It only took them a few seds to get the thing w and moving towards the gate. I followed behind the vehicle eagerly, waiting to see exactly what age my oy could bring.
