A thing we often run into over the course of our careers is corporations fucking with people in ways Samurai take offense to, yet we have limited ways to resolve outside of violence.

  That corp is using slave labor to harvest a critical resource humanity needs to make things? What about that one who controls the water of an entire state? Sure, we could go guns blazing in the boardroom, but the Samurai who do that are woefully unprepared to run the company they just liberated.

  -Vanguard Red Menace answering a stream Q&A, 2056

  Once the smoke clears, I send down two of my Scout Swarms to investigate the thirty second floor. As they descend, I see the entire back wall of the shaft has been removed, opening it up for smaller antithesis Models to invade the thirty second floor. The reason I think that is because the elevator door for that floor has been peeled open and is riddled with bullet holes.

  The first thing I notice is the sheer amount of dead antithesis riddled with bullet holes. Then I see the gun emplacement on the ceiling. A few dozen high powered mini gun types spaced evenly, all pointing towards the elevator.

  My swarms continue to the back of the area and to the surprisingly simple glass door that separates the area. It's not even air tight, nor does it lead into an air lock system. It's not even locked, which I suppose makes sense considering the only way to enter the floor normally is to have permission to enter, and if you don't, you won't be a problem for long.

  My swarms enter the security area and I am surprised to see about thirty living humans. And they're not even infected by Sevens! A majority of them are in full armor with rifles and hand guns, while the rest of them seem to be system techs and maintenance workers.

  I eventually see one person in full corpo gear, pressed suit jacket and slacks, standing on what appears to be a command overlook reading from a tablet. On it is a live feed towards the elevator entrance. He is giving orders to the techs to see if they have any idea what happened.

  “Do the Scouts have the ability to hack into the servers remotely, or is that another upgrade?”

  The Electronic Interface Module is indeed an upgrade for Scout Swarms. It costs fifty points per swarm and allows you to utilize them as a medium to physically connect to any electronic system that actively cuts itself off from the net.

  “Please upgrade all four with that.”

  Purchased: Electronic Interface Module 4x

  Points reduced to 732

  “Synaptic, while I would normally ask Cody to do this, this place is teeming with Samurai tech. Could you extract everything, go over it and report the important info?”

  Done and done! Good news is that, while a majority of the terabytes of data on these servers is residential, advertisement, and traffic information, they have not yet activated the purge protocols to get rid of the actual damning information. The other good news is that the Samurai who are registered as working with the building owners, one Bub the Worker, only sold them a Class II Material Fabrication drone and a team of Class I worker bots, and one Senestro, who only wold them both the Shielding generator and the Class I security software. The registered Corporation for who owns the building is in no way actually related to the Corporation who is registered in this database. It is a biotechnology research corporation by the name of Motero-Wistera. Publicly, they are a research and development corporation who seem to focus on reverse engineering Vanuard technologies, as most R and D corporations do.

  The data on this server shows that the goal here was to see if they could condition a hive structure to assist in construction and stabilization efforts in order to lessen the cost of building megastructures. They did this by feeding the hive sewage materials and waste products while stimulating the roots to only grow in specific configurations, and by burning any birthing pods in the main chamber. Data shows that, as per the project guidelines, it was working.

  “And as we can see, there was a major failure in containmemt,” I growled. I could feel my heart rate spiking in anger. My swarms around me flew a bit faster, responding to my agitation.

  Indeed. The first reported failure point was on the fifty eighth floor. More specifically, in the technical collage. Cameras and sensors detected multiple holes open up in the structure and Model Threes pouring out. Shortly after that, all monitoring sensors failed at once, with only cameras functional for a majority of the floors, but failing on the basement levels.

  “Mother fucker!” I yelled, slamming my fist into the side of the remains of the elevator, denting it. “The guys who hired my team, they knew something was happening here, and they sent us to poke it. Those chips we were installing did something to the hive. Fuck! We casued this!” I punched the wall a few more times, blood rushing through my head and ears.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  …tor. Victor!

  I briefly heard Synaptic calling for me, but I ignored her for now, deciding to wallow in this rage for a while. My swarms began eating through the wall structure around me, quickly eating all the way to the exterior coating of the building.

  Then, a sharp note popped in my head. It didn't last for more than a quarter of a second, but it was enough to stun me for a moment.

  Vanguard Victor Optic. This is not your fault. You and your family were used by those above you as tools. Do you blame the brick someone throws at a window for breaking the glass, or the person who threw it knowing what would happen. You do not blame the gun or thr bullet for killing someone, you blame the person holding it. You are not to blame.

  Her voice was still soft, but the tone was sharp, attempting to deny me any guilt.

  Now, take some deep breaths, calm yourself, and figure out a plan for what to do next. You have access to the security center, you know there are living people inside it, your family is above, practicing combat and ready to be extracted as needed, and the hive bellow should pose no threat to you based on how long it has been allowed to grow antithesis. Now, breath.

  After a moment, I follow her directions and take a deep breath, holding it in, then releasing it slowly. Over the course of the next minute, I reinged in my heart rate and felt the adrenaline flush from me.

  “Okay. New plan. I can do a new plan. I have to send this info to Lasso, let her know that I have some thirty plus heavily armed survivors who need to be detained. I can disable the turrets on command, so that makes it easier. What failsafe do they have in case of capture?”

  I have not detected any explosives or such destructive devices in the building. The only security protocol is the data purge, plus the heavy flamers that should have taken care of the hive.

  “Alright. I will have Jill and the others reconvene with Cody in the van and prepare to head out once Lasso is here. Then, I will head down and continue to exterminate the antithesis, gain as many points as I can, and maybe another token, then finish gutting the building of all antithesis material.”

  A sound plan. Shall I call Laser Lasso first, or your family?

  “Make it a group call. I don't want to repeat myself, and I need to coordinate the two.”

  The group call connects almost instantly. “Heya, newbie! I see the call is pretty full. I'm just finishing up here. What's up?” Lasso said, her voice pretty cheerful considering the situation.

  “I am currently in control of the security station and can open the garage shutter at any time. There are thirty something people holed up in a heavily armed and armored security center that need to be detained. Roger, you guys need to make your way back to the van and evacuate once Laser Lasso arrives. I am planning on fully gutting this building to eliminate the antithesis, and I cannot do that with you guys in it.”

  “I also grabbed everything from the server, and it's not great. I'll send a data packet to Lasso and Cody, but the TLDR is a biotechnology Corp was running an experiment with a hive in the basement and their containment failed, and the root cause was possibly the job we were on in the college. Cody, once we get back to the dorm, the planned data mine will have the assistance of Synaptic and new augs.”

  Silence from the family followed, while Lasso whistled a long note. “Damn, kid. That's a lot to unpack, and the only curve ball was that your employer was involved somehow. And may I ask what gutting the building means?”

  “Easily. I can demolish an entire floor from floor to ceiling, wall to wall, into dust in under five minutes. I plan to start at the thirty first floor, shred down to the hive, remove it, then make my way to the top floor and shred my way back down to the thirty second floor.”

  More silence followed.

  “Sands, Ant. You can just level an entire megabuilding?” Jill said with obvious shock in her voice.

  “Yeah, Jill. Nanite swarms are hella destructive. It's why the only way they are allowed to be active is for them to be under direct control of a Samurai.”

  “That they are. It's one of the reasons that a majority of Samurai that utilize nanobots do so in a supporting capacity and not their main mode of, well, everything,” Lasso explained, chuckling. “Alright, kiddos. I will be at the tower in ten minutes. I will send you a ping so that you can open the door at the garage. Don't worry about meeting up with me, newbie, just focus on mowing the lawn down there. I'll handle the soon to be prisoners. See you soon!” With that, she disconnected.

  “Hey, Victor, after we all get out of here, we need to talk about a lot,” Roger said with a heavy tone. “We did check the last shelter on the seventy fifth floor, and it was empty, so don't worry and just shred everything. We will hang around the building in the van and wait for you. See you later.”

  “Yeah, Roger. See you soon.” I disconnected the call. “Synaptic, thank you.”

  You’re welcome, Victor. Shall we decend bellow?

  “Yeah. We know there is a Model Seventeen bellow, but I'm not sure what kind of ambush it could set up between here and there. Based on the data, the Hive is on floor B-6, and the surrounding structure from B-4 to b-8 is made of Class II Materials, so they should have no way out.”

  Considering that it has not left any observation troops behind while you were shredding the floors, it should not yet know of this strategy. It may have a large ambush on the Thirty First floor, as the only way into it is from this elevator shaft.

  “A fair point. Please purchase Two more Scout Swarms to replace the two I will leave in the security center for now, then we can see if there is an ambush waiting for us.”

  Purchased: Class I War Swarm Scout Swarm 2x

  Purchased Class I Scout Biomonitor 2x

  Purchased Class I Electronic Interface Modual 2x

  Points reduced to 402

  Two more swarms are connected to my augs, which I promptly send down through the burned out wreckage of the elevator cabin into the lower floor. There. I did indeed see a massive hoard of antithesis, numerous Model Fours around the entrance, dozens of varient Model Fives, as well as dozens of these giant, sedan sized grasshopper looking plants with swollen abdomen, Model Fifteens. Behind them all, I could see six Model Twelves that looked like emaciated Bees the size of busses

  “Huh. Quite the welcome party.”

  Indeed. If you were a more conventional Vanguard, this would have had a high chance of killing you.

  I chuckled darkly, “Well, it's a good thing I'm not conventional.”