It took awhile for Whisperer to actually ehe pound, long enough for the IFVs to arrive and my troops to start unpag. “What took you so long?” I asked wheually came in, followed by the two newbies.

  “I was busy getting Red up and running,” she replied, as her massive wolf-like pet shoved opee behind her. “Unfortunately, when I don’t have ready access to antithesis corpses, I o harvest some other kind of biomass to get the process started, a Red feed in order to grow to the right size.” The huge wolf bent over to smell one of my bears before huffing and going to y in front of the furnaces. “I see your reinforts have arrived.”

  “Three extra squads, along with a couple dozen more squirrels,” I firmed. “I’ve pretty much finished seg the area and we’re ready to go into the tunnels.”

  “Although I appreciate your enthusiasm, maybe we should actually discuss the situation rather thaering the tunnels blindly. We should also make sure Jesse and Tina are properly prepared before we enter,” Whisperer admonished me.

  “Fine… we’ll do some pnning first,” I grumbled. With a sihought, I sent the bears scurrying about, pig up miseous junk in order to create an impromptu briefing area. Once we had a det setup, I called the other two over.

  Tina sprinted over and stuck out her hand to Whisperer. “I’m Tina Reed,” she said eically. “o meet you.”

  Whisperer shook her hand, after a moment of surprise. “Olivia Reeves, but most people call me Whisperer,” she told the girl. After a moment, Jesse also wandered over and shook her hand and introduced himself, before everyoook a seat.

  “Alright, since I’ve beehe lo, the least I do is tell you what we’re dealing with,” I said. “We’re here because a newly discovered antithesis tunnel plex was discovered in Jasper, and because it was so extensive and resembled a previously discovered tunnel in this area, we’ve beeo iigate. It seems that, after the up crew left, the mining crews hit additional tunnels in this area.”

  I paused for a moment a everyone a copy of my mapping data. “I sent scouts into the tunnels and, as you see, they’re quite extensive. I haven’t been able to locate any hives yet, but I do know there are antithesis down there,” I reported.

  “How?” Jesse asked.

  “They ate one of my scouts, then fucked off,” I grumbled. “I didn’t have anything else close enough to see which way they went afterwards.”

  “Something dangerous?” Tina asked excitedly.

  “No, just a Model Three. There probably was more around, but I didn’t see any,” I replied with a sigh. “The tunnels are coated in some sort of protective coating, which is apparently excreted by Model Fourteens, so robably expect a couple of those running around the tunnels somewhere.”

  “Shit…” Whisperer swore. “They’re ly that dangerous in an open area, but in tight spaces there’s a serious risk of getting trampled, and none of my boys are great at rending armor.”

  “I’m pnning on sending a squad to escort each of you, and they have a railgun which pee, but line of sight kinda sucks in there, so it’s not something we pletely rely on,” I said. “With the lines of sight and static defenses I set up, we don’t have to worry about the mirance, just the tunnels.”

  While Whisperer sidered, I turo the other two. “If you two io go into the tunnels, you o be equipped properly, so… hooints do you have avaible, and how are you going to ihem?” I asked.

  Jesse shifted on his stool unfortably. “’t we just buy things as we hem?” he asked iurn.

  “In some cases, yes, but you should have the basics before entering,” Whisperer replied, turning to join the versation. “Have either of you bought armor? ht vision?”

  “I haven’t, but I !” Tina decred from her side of the table. “What else should we purchase?” she asked excitedly.

  “That’s really up to you,” I replied. “You he equipment to survive and, you know, fun down there, but it’s up to you to develop your own style. I’ve told you what we might enter down there. How do you want to prepare for it?”

  The girl frowned for a moment, then nodded. “Big gun, more spiders,” she mumbled to herself. Tina stood up and walked over to where her spiders were sitting before leaning down and talking to what I could only assume was her AI. Jesse, oher hand, didn’t move.

  “You ok there?” Whisperer asked. “Have questions or anything?”

  “I’m fine… I just want to sider my options before I make a purchase. I don't want to waste my points on a sub-optimal purchase,” Jesse grumbled.

  “You shouldn’t worry about making a pletely optimal purchase right now,” Whisperer told him. “The lower css of equipment is retively cheap and disposable pared to the more advanced catalogs. You try a few things and see what you like, rather than trying to find the absolutely best optiht off the bat.”

  He grunted. “But I don’t have the points to experiment with. If I don’t choose properly, I may be caught off guard once we get going, that’s why I want to evaluate the situation before purchasing.”

  “Well, we’re not leaving this instant, so you take your time to go over the options with your AI and make the most informed choice possible. Once we actually find and ehe Antithesis, you purchase somethier, or try something new,” I told him.

  “Fine… I’ll think about it,” he said, befoing quiet. He got a far away look in his eyes, which I suspected meant he was discussing things with his AI through subvocallization, or some other method. I waited another mio see if he actually wao discuss anything else, befetting bored of being ignored and wandering off. I didn’t quite know what was going through his head, but if he didn’t want to discuss it, that was his choice.

  Instead, I wandered over to where Tina was. She was in the middle of ying out a fancy suit of armor, with meical spider-like arms extending from the back, so I crouched down and looked at her setup. “You weren’t joking about the spider theme, were you?” I quipped.

  “Absolutely not,” she replied seriously, cheg on the arms while the little meical spiders crawled around her.

  “Well, I’m gd one of you has decided to take Whisperer’s advice,” I said while poking one of her spiders. “Did you decide on any other purchases?”

  “Yup! I picked an alternate spider-bot design, which should help with the big guys,” Tina said happily. “Those bck colored ones, like the one you’re poking, tain pressurized acid isters and explode on demand.”

  I froze. “That’s a joke, right? They’re not actually filled with acid, right?”

  “No joke. Even my regur bots are armed with acid, although they’re desigo either i it or spray it a very small distance,” she replied with a small nod. “Don’t worry though, the exploders keep their payloads in an inactive state. It o mix an activator into the mixture before it bees dangerous.”

  “Well, that’s a good idea. I don’t think many samurai actually think about that sort of thing ahead of time,” I said.

  “Well, I do. Chemistry is my best subject at school,” she said with a smile. “I'm actually a little surprised that I even thought to throw acid oithesis when they crashed into the school b. It er risky move, but I didly have a choice at the time.” Tina sat back after iing her suit and looked my way. “You know what? I’ve always been fasated by samurai, but never sidered what I would do if I was ever chosen. That moment in the b made me realize that I could use my love of sce to fight."

  "Makes sehat doesn't expin why you decided on a spider theme though," I said.

  Tina smiled just a little wider. "I like spiders."

  “Right… that seems kinda weird to me, but what do I know? I specialize in teddy bears,” I said with a sigh. “Does your suit have night vision?”

  “Yes!” she said with a smile. “It wasn’t expensive, and if we’re going to be crawling through tunnels, I’ll . Don’t worry, I aying attention.” She scooped up her suit, or attempted to, but it seemed to be much heavier thaher of us expected, so I summoned one of my bears over to pick it up.

  “You ge in the van or my truck if you feel more fortable,” I told her. “Just tell the bear where to put the suit when you’re ready.”

  She nodded excitedly, then stood up and headed back towards the gate. “Thanks!” she called.

  I nodded as I watched her walk off. At least I was fortable with how one of the newbies ing along. Hopefully, by the end of the day, Jesse would start figuring things out. Otherwise it was going to be a long exploration.