When dealing with hives, there are a few things you should watch out for. The first and most important are the command types of the Seventeen Series, as they will aleays make taking out a hive more difficult and deadly.

  The second is making sure that whatever measures you do take to destroy it, don't take you out with it.

  -Excerpt from The Family: FAQ in relation to "How much fire is enough to wipe out a hive"

  The path towards the hive structure, even the quickest path Synaptic could route for me, still took an hour to navigate. And that was not including the constant stream of Model Threes, Fours, Fives, and Nines that swarmed through every hallway on the way.

  There was a close call, even with the Bubble formation. They pulled a few pipes of gas off the wall at some point, flooding the area, then caused a spark to ignite it all. Two Assault swarms lost about six percent of their density each, while a Scout Swarm lost nineteen percent.

  It would take too long to allow them to heal, so I kept pushing forward, now heightening my processing of information from the Scout Swarms to try and detect any more traps.

  Eventually, after slogging through rivers of antithesis flesh and blood, I made it to the observation room that was supposed to overlook the hive structure.

  My plan was to see if there was a way to reengage the flamers, as it would help. Barring that, seeing the hive would at least let me plan a path of attack.

  The door to the control room was still sealed, to my surprise. Accessing it was, thankfully easy, and I pulled all my swarms with me into the room, sealing the door behind me once more.

  The control room was a decently large, tiered structure, with a few different computer stations lining the walls. The far back wall was a floor to ceiling glass window that was currently shuttered, blocking sight to the hive.

  “Synaptic, could you connect to the systems here and let me know the situation below?”

  The flamers are showing as jammed, yet the fuel tanks are reading as full. Logs show they were just refueled yesterday. All other sensors in the room below are sending some readings, but they are fragmented heavily, most likely due to heavy EMC interference.

  “Before we open the shutters, do I have the ability to break the glass in case we need to descend promptly?"

  The glass itself is also Class II materials, however it is not shielded. With a concerted effort of your swarms, they can cut through it in a few minutes, or you could purchase the Thermal Cutter upgrades for your Assault Swarms and be able to cut through in seconds!

  “Let me guess, a thousand points per?”

  Correct, Victor!

  I glance at the corner of my augs that shows the running Talley for my points and Tokens.

  Points = 14859

  “Not now. I have so many things I need to buy for the eventual logistics center, not to mention the upgrades for the others, plus blueprints. And a car, I'm going to need my own form of transportation separate from the van.” I sighed heavily, both exasperated at the number of things I needed to buy, but also excited that I have the ability to play my favorite game in real life. My mind shifted to games for a bit. Most every game I have ever played has been taken from job sites, and most of them sucked. The ones that were super fun to play were from the pre Twenties.

  Books on a few different TTRPG systems that I enjoyed reading, a few turn-based combat and strategy games, a few real time strategy games, and even a few military tactical sims.

  “Hey, Synaptic. Is there a system that will let me practice different tactics and fight antithesis against an AI or something?”

  There are a number of simulation catalogs, as well as various tactical AI and behavioral pattern catalogs available for purchase.

  “One more thing for the list. I'm going to start cutting a hole in the glass, and once I am about halfway through, please open the shutters. That should give me enough time to figure out some form of attack.”

  With that, I had a swarm begin cutting a circular hole ten feet wide as I strolled to the glass. I could feel the antithesis banging on the door behind me, but I saw how thick it was, so I wasn’t worried.

  Time passed slowly, and I sent a message up to Lasso, letting her know that I was about to assault the hive. She sent a thumbs up emoji.

  The shutters shuddered, then slid downwards revealing the chamber beyond. The room was a dense jungle of vines four hundred feet long and two hundred feet wide, but only fifty feet tall. I could see hundred of pods line the walls with these monkey plants running along the vines, cutting ripe pods that hit the ground and splashed with juice, spitting out eight Model Threes.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  There were four spires of bark and vines acting as pillars, while in the very back of the room was a swirling pool of bright orange liquid fifty feet across. Above it were two large pipes opening directly into the pit. The sewage and trash pipes, I assumed.

  Then there was the maddening amount of antithesis covering the floor like the world's deadliest carpet, while above I could see four very large shapes. Each one looked like three squids covered in eyes stuck together on their sides, with long, thick tentacles drooping below them. Model Thirteens, hive defenders

  Then, in the center of the room, a single large pod was gestating something.

  As the shutter finished dropping, all eyes in the room turned towards me.

  “I'm not seeing any Twelves,”

  Model Nines can also give off weak EMC signals. They might simply be sitting on the sensors in the area.

  “Point out the flamers and their tanks, please,”

  Four points in the room light up on my augs. The two heavy flamers were on the ceiling, but they were mangled by the Model Thirteens. Then, on either side of the room were two massive tanks filled with fuel, each containing thousands of gallons of flammable materials.

  “Please purchase one fire bomb type explosive,” I ask, condensing two Assault Swarms into drills. With their Class II upgrades and density upgrade, each swarm could condense into ten drills. While I only needed two drills, I knew that the moment the glass broke, the Thirteens would swarm the hole and block my shots, so I went with a shotgun approach.

  Purchased Melta Fire Bomb

  Points reduced to 14844

  I reached out my hand and caught the new bomb. It was more of a canister than a sphere, with the same button and dials setup as the concussion grenades. Then, my swarm finished cutting through the glass, causing the pane to fall into the hive room, then crushing a number of plants below.

  As predicted, all four Model Thirteens flew towards the hole as I shot ten drills towards each tank. I then sent up my Defence Swarms to cover the hole, with other Assault swarms flying to intercept the Thirteens.

  Six drills slam into the center squid core of first Fourteen, causing it to pause for a moment and then spasm as the nanites tore it apart from within. Five hit the second on the left core, the last two only got glanced by one each. A few Model Fifteens tried to launch their artillery wheels, which were tightly bound wheels of vines and spikes that exploded on impact, at the remaining drills, but they missed, and my attacks hit their marks.

  They began digging into the tanks, which I realized were also made of Class II materials, so it would take some time to puncture. Sending my Scout Swarms in, I could see a number of Model Fours climbing the walls to and enter the hole, as well as a Model Fourteen making its way over.

  I sent in six more Assault Swarms into the room, two to prevent the Fours from climbing the walls, two to try and slow the Fourteen, and two to target the large gestation pod in the center of the room. My information stated that such pods were an indicator of Model Twenties and above.

  My swarms were doing an excellent job keeping the Fours at bay, but they were too slow to damage the giant bus sized Centipede, let alone making any rapid headway against the pod.

  The Fourteen climbed the walls with ease. Taking to the ceiling and slammed its face into the glass, being just a bit too large to fit through the hole I cut. It then opened its mouth, unhinging its face until it had an opening the same diameter as its body, then it created a seal with its body against the glass. From within, I could see dozens of Model Threes rushing the entrance and began attacking the Defence Swarm barrier. I could see the integrity drop by one or two percent with each attack, and calculated that the shield would go down in thirty seconds.

  I sent on one of my last swarms through the shield and into the mouth of the plant, shredding the Threes and preventing any further damage. Then, from the depths of the Fourteen, a Model Six, a massive rhino like beast, rushed through the cloud of nanites and slammed into the shielding, dropping the integrity to forty percent.

  I sent in my last swarm and had it focus on the Six, while the other dove further into the Centipede Bus, seeking to eliminate any further surprises.

  By the time the Six was dead, my shielding was down to twenty two percent, however the Fourteen was now empty of antithesis. Before I could recall my swarms, it closed its mouth and scuttled away. It wasn't looking stable, with many divots in its armor, but it was still moving, and now had four of my swarms occupied.

  I directed the Generator Swarm to focus on the Defence shield, yet I also noticed that my Assault swarms were down to about fifty percent power.

  Finally, the two tanks sprang leaks, then torrents of fuel began pouring out into the room. I sent all my swarms to the Fourteen, which fell after a few more seconds, then a few Fours took advantage of the missing swarms to finish off the barrier. Instantly, a pungent chemical smell flowed through the hole, but I sent my last Defence swarm to re-plug the hole.

  I recalled all my swarms back to the observation room, devouring them slightly to clear the wall of Fours. Then, I activated the Melta Fire Bomb and threw it through the shield.

  “Buy a Cohesion upgrade for the defence swarms!” I yelled, thinking that they might not be enough on their own to withstand the fireball I was summoning.

  Purchased War Swarm Cohesion Upgrade 2x

  Points reduced to 16629

  As soon as the notification finished, the bomb went off. Then, the room was filled with light. The shield integrity dropped by thirty instantly, but then dropped at a rate of one point every few seconds. I could not see through the smoke, but I could hear the flames crackling and vines snapping.

  //Good news! With the fire taking out the Model Nines, the EMC interfering with the sensors has vanished!

  I checked the new information and was surprised that the sensors expanded through the entire floor now. The fire spread rapidly across the floor and towards the elevators, the temperature readouts spiking beyond one thousand degrees.

  I then activated the shutters, which cut us off from the heat. My defence drones shield integrity was only down to fifty by time the shutter was closed.

  “Do we have an idea on how long the fire will burn?”

  The fuel type is a complex polymer similar to napalm, yet more volatile. It will burn hot and fast and spread through the floor for about ten minutes. The area will remain inhospitable to organic life for hours after the fact, however. Also, before we get to much further along

  Point total 30285

  Tokens 4

  I reeled at the number. That number of tokens should get me a decent start on fabrication, and that many points would be a nice start up fund.

  I let my mind wander while I waited for the fire to die out, going over vehicle ideas, real-estate shopping for a new home for my family and I, even talking a bit about my name.