Chapter 8 - Warm Up

  During the interim years after the firebombing of Ireland's west coast and the resettlement of Dublin in 2034, the antithesis began to spread rapidly across Ireland. This was slowed down by the formation of the Saints Of Ireland PMC, composed of ex-Irish ARW, supplied with samurai tech to deal with the hazardous conditions and headed by the samurai “Incarnis”. Due to this backing, along with help from the samurai “Wolf Queen” and her Lupus Fidelis Guards, the spread of antithesis was kept in check and was not allowed to spread much past the west coast. - The History of Tír na nóg by Guy Frisk, Military Historian 2047.

  The shift overtook me quickly and I began to run forward in a loping stride and then I transitioned to using my arms for a quadrupedal bound forward. My muscles kept expanding further, allowing me more speed as the combat stimulants were dumped into my system.

  It didn’t take me more than a second to clear the end of the corridor then the 10 meters to pass the outer cordon of vehicles and infantry then I was upon the enemy they were different than what I had faced before the tri hinged jaw was very similar to a model 3 but they looked drastically different to when I last remember them they were notably taller, but slimmer and much faster than I remember much more like a jackal with six legs than a more standard dog form Model 3.

  When I collided with the first one, I swiped my claws into its skull and squeezed the head, compressing it with the lower two jaws popping off and a spurt of green blood rocketed up at me.

  Well, they still crunched like they used to. The next two were upon me as I let the first drop, raising my hands, I stabbed my claws through their chest as they both jumped at me, then brought them together in a clap, shattering the plates on their sides and pulping their internals.

  My ears picked up a small scrabbling as something turned hard and jumped, a jaw wrapped itself around my lower left bicep and began to bite down. I didn’t feel pain, only the sensation that it was there and doing damage. I swung my head around and I sank my teeth into the neck of what I assumed was a Model 3.

  Wrenching my head back, my teeth cut through a large part of the plant meat and the weakened neck musculature couldn’t hold up its weight anymore, so the body sloughed off the exposed part of the neck onto the ground.

  Dropping the two bodies I was holding and swallowing the small pieces of flesh still in my mouth I grabbed the remaining part of the head and ripped it off along with about a fifth of my bicep the bionanites would begin to pull more biomass to fix the injury it shouldn’t take that long out of combat but with the combat stimulants boosting the muscles all across my body I’d likely rip more areas that they’ll have to fix and Class I bionanites will likely struggle.

  “Control the rage, control the fear, control the loss, do not serve it.. Through control of yourself, you control the outcome.”

  I kept repeating the mantra as another one of the fruits leapt at me. I caught it with my right hand closed around its muzzle, holding the thing's jaw shut. It started to claw at my arm and chest, so I quickly brought it up and sank my teeth through its throat, ripping it out and swallowing the hunk of flesh.

  With my left arm, I grabbed the last two-dimensional shunt grenades out of the pouch and tossed them forward to give myself some space so I could make a purchase before I waded further into the swarm.

  As I jumped back, the two grenades went off with a dual wump of evacuating atmosphere.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  “Badb, bionanite upgrade, refill grenades in pouch monowire.”

  Ohhh, lovely here you go, my Hound.

  ——

  New Purchase -

  Class II - Moon. Stalkers BioNano Technologies - 425 Points - 1 Token

  Class II - BioNanite Production Organ -265 Points

  Class I - Combat Graft - 25 Points

  Class II - BioNanite Supplement Injector - 140 Points

  Class I - Mark I Monofilament Wire Canister x3 - 12 Points

  Current Point Total: 2,604,206

  Current Tokens: 5

  ——

  There was instantly a noticeable absence behind my hearts as Badb removed the previous organ and replaced it with the Class II one. The injector appeared in front of me, so I grabbed it and stabbed it into my chest beside my primary heart. The vial emptied instantly.

  Reaching down and grabbing a Monowire Canister, I quickly hit the primer button on the top and flicked it forward into the gathering crowd of antithesis in front of me.

  Glancing down at my bicep, the Class II BioNanites were definitely speeding things up as I could see muscle fascicles being rebuilt, as well as the blood vessels that were damaged being pulled out from where they had retracted further into the tissue and being pieced back together.

  Now that was being sorted I held back the urge to throw myself back into combat immediately and scanned the battlefield situation that I had ignored during my first charge, the strike force was giving a very good account of themselves taking cover behind their MATVs and taking aim at the charging plants that got past the outer cordon made by the Remote Weapon Systems mounted on the vehicles the ones to the furthest side both sporting flamethrowers that were laying down a firewall to cover the flanks.

  A set of needles impacted the side of one of the vehicles and made the troops duck behind it immediately, following the direction from which they must have hit. I saw an antithesis trotting forward, it looked vaguely like a bear but half the size, with small quills sticking out across its body and a concentration of much larger quills on both sides of the head held on flaps fanned out; they had changed since I last had seen them. These were much more flimsy than previous ones and very far from home, as they were usually more defensive model.

  Trudging up alongside it were two others, along with a car-sized antithesis walking forward on four trunk-like rear and middle legs, the front pair being similar to its smaller brethren’s. It also had a much more angular head than usual.

  “Girls, what am I looking at?”

  I decided to ask the experts implanted in my skull.

  A Model Six HS…

  A croak came, then there was a sound of shuffling that was obviously done artificially before Macha took over the explanation.

  They are smaller versions of the standard Model Six, trading some bulk and survivability for more speed, as to keep pace with the high-speed nature of the hunter swarms… Means they are easier to kill!

  Macha was interrupted by Badb at the end with her loud interjection.

  To continue. And I could hear the annoyance. The other two types are Model Threes and Model Fives, both are HS Variants, the Fives being notably smaller than the standard template with some modifications to quill placements, the Model Threes are basically the same, the only really notable thing being the extra set of legs. Be Careful.

  Macha finished whispering the last part.

  “Thank you Macha.”

  Don’t thank me, go get ripped to shreds!

  To bat..

  I heard a beak get clamped shut and then Anand spoke.

  Do not underestimate your opponents and we all want you to stay safe, even if some won't say so.

  “Of course I'll be careful, Anand.”