“There was a game before the Antithesis started invading that had a concept where at a specific hour of night, these fucked-up creatures would swarm the streets and kill everything left out in the open. What a wild concept.
In other news, have you ever seen a wave of Antithesis before?”
2030, Shauna “Ahab” Ishmael
As I dropped below the water’s surface, multiple things happened at once.
First:
Unlocked:
Class I Esoteric Explosives Catalog
Class I Stalhas Adaptable Equipment Catalog
Total Points: 150
Remaining: 300
New Purchases:
Stalhas Heavy Attack Robot - Model K x 1 = 150 points
Enhanced Depth Charge Torpedoes x 10 = 150 points
Total Points: 300
Points Remaining: 0
Shark drone. Kyos taking things incredibly literally and also killing it with the acronyms.
Why, thank you.
“Right. Forgot I kinda have my thought channel open to you right now.”
Secondly, the spear of my harpoon returned with a snap and a small amount of recoil to the shaft of the weapon, taking out a couple smaller Models on the way back. Of course, the others that were around them took exception to that and began to start swarming towards me.
I shall forgo telling you each and every kill you get, but I will periodically update you on your point total.
“Gotcha. Now, let’s get killing,” I thought to Kyos moments before I had to contend with three sharkhound Model Threes, utilizing the tenfold stab to clear them off me, before my shark drone came behind me and ripped a Model Four that was trying ambush tactics in half.
“I think I’ll call you…Bruce. Like that shark from the old Nemo, before Pixar sequelled it to hell and back.”
The shark did not respond and just went about covering my back while I focused on my front.
Would you like another SHARK when you reach enough points? You should be reaching the requisite amount in…
An explosion of a depth charge sent a shockwave through the water, scattering the remains of many Antithesis around.
About now.
“Yeah.”
Understood.
Points reduced to…50.
Another swish of water signaled the teleporting of a new shark drone, each covering my rear flanks.
“I think I’ll call this one…Jeff.”
Those are mildly regular names for sharks. Is this an earth thing?
“Oh yeah, we have a lot of shark characters that are just called regular people's names. You’d think that people would go a lot edgier with apex predator names, but no, Bruce and Jeff. Crazy, isn’t it?” I laughed mentally as I skewered a mutated Six and shot its corpse forward using the spear shot function to shock a crowd of oncoming xenos before being bashed to the side by a large tendril of a Model Four. If it wasn’t for my rebreather, I’d probably have had the breath knocked out of me. Firstly, that worked out better than I expected for that maneuver. Secondly, OW.
Hmmm…this tide of Antithesis seems to be much greater than anticipated.
“You think?!” The tip of the harpoon ripped out of the Six’s corpse and returned to me just in time for me to wheel to the side and strike a Nine that was hidden in the tide of creatures rushing past me that tried to get the jump on me. It was a bit late to be thinking that this was just a teensy bit too much to handle.
Sarcasm is very common with you, it seems. The Model Fours here are…very similar to their unadapted form, closer to their original habitat. Considering that, Model Fourteens may be-
I felt the jaw of a Three clamp around my leg in an attempt to bite into it as I reached out to stab into the Four that had struck me. Before the Three had a chance to get through, Jeff came around and tore the Three from me. While the wetsuit protected me, and Jeff’s assistance kept things minimal, I could still feel a dull pressure pain in my leg. I used the Bloodchaser to press forward, trying desperately to get closer to shore by the moment.
I spared a thought for the passengers of the ship. Maybe they would survive…if I could survive long enough, maybe I could get some drones to drag the boat to shore… But there was too much going on to even think about that. Urgency called.
“Get to the point, Kyos. It’s only a matter of time before they see my path of death and destruction and decide to send the big guns,” I thought, my mind running at figuratively 120% capacity to keep up with the absolute clusterfuck of information and stimuli that I faced in front of me. The water was my peaceful place.
Right now, though, it was my personal hell.
Indeed, I do believe that it would be beneficial to attempt to hide somewhere. Possibly in a way that would allow you to get stronger.
Hide? I had to get to Nate! Why do I…
A Model Nine came up from behind me and tried to cut into my neck while I wasn’t looking. In the moments before it could do anything, however, I pushed off with the Bloodchaser and used the tail of it to smack into the Nine, leaving it for Bruce to come and chomp on.
That was close. This was not tenable. Like it or not…Kyos was right.
“Ok, what are we looking at?”
To do so, you will need at least 5000 points for what I have drafted in the nanoseconds since I started postulating to you.
5000 points. Fuck.
“And how much am I making now?”
Around a thousand a minute. There are higher-level Models that you are catching in collateral as well, as well as multiple smaller Antithesis carriers.
“That doesn’t seem so hard.”
Which means that you need to hold them off.
“I can do that-”
For five minutes. And considering the injuries you’ve already taken…eh, I’m sure you’ll be alright.
Right. The injuries. The injuries that were starting to pile up. While I still had the Class II Nano-Regenerative in my system slightly, it wasn’t going to be enough if I, say, got my head cut off or torso caved in.
God, those five minutes would feel like an eternity.
Five minutes, alright. I could do that.
I heard a quiet movement in the water underneath me, a group of tentacles coming up. They seemed to have curious suckers on them, so I didn’t want to take chances. I stabbed through my assailant’s limbs and then aimed down with my harpoon and sent the tip firing, shocking it, as well as what looked like a couple Sevens and Nines. The Sevens seemed to look like pieces of kelp with long cilia connected to them that were nearly invisible within the water, and the Nines seemed to look like squid and octopi, using active camouflage to fully trap the floor of the harbor.
Note to self: don’t go down without clearing the area.
Curious. There are multiple aquatic variants present throughout this wave of Antithesis. Do be advised to not think you’ve found a strategy. For any of them.
As my eyes returned up, I felt a shock through the water reverberate as a set of Antithesis that were coming to take advantage of my analysis were taken out by a torpedo. I could feel my insides beginning to hurt from proximity to the shockwaves, but time would tell if it really would be too much.
The tip of the harpoon snapped back up just in time for me to stab into a Three, use its body to block a Model Five that looked like a sharper pufferfish, and then use the multi-stab function to stab through the Three and into the body of the Five before throwing both of them off my harpoon towards the wall of oncoming Antithesis, shredding a few of them.
Mna mna do dooo, do doo do-
“Damn it, Piccolo.”
Committing to the bit, Macy, committing to the bit.
I laughed a little, a bit of the tension pulling away from me before the situation came rushing back to me in a flash of sound.
Before I had time to relish my maneuvering, I heard a scraping of metal peal through the water, the side of one of my shark drones, Jeff, taking a serious tear scraping through their metal hide as a carapace-winged Antithesis shredded through the water in the shape of an avian creature crossed with a stingray.
Variant Model Elevens. They have been repurposed as strike units.
Fuck. I barely had time to pull myself to the side before the Eleven ripped through the water in front of me. However, it wasn’t the only Antithesis that I was contending with, as, say it with me, class, another Eleven raced behind me. Bruce diverted them just enough to not slice me in two, but not enough to block what both of them had done together.
My rebreather was broken. My oxygen tank was sliced open. And my face had a significant slash on it. Which was extremely painful. But that wasn’t the biggest problem.
I had no air. I was about to drown. And I still had those rays to deal with.
Macy, I have a solution to this, and I need you to think fast. The Greater Intubation Lifeline System for 300 points from the Stalhas Technologies catalog. I will assist with installation to avoid needing to use more oxygen than necessary.
“What are you waiting for!? Do it!” My mental panic was palpable. My hands flailed in the water, fighting for the scraps of agency I could get. Scraps that were running out and fast.
Understood.
New Purchase: Mark I Greater Intubation LifeLine System
Points reduced to…2200
I felt something press into my sides, near my bottom set of ribs, clamping down and connecting to the same system that the Bloodchaser was connected to, and a stabbing into my body commenced that felt like fire. I’m pretty sure I inhaled a bit of water with the inhale of pain I had brought in due to the feeling of having what felt like a sword pierce through my torso.
My apologies for no anesthetic; time is of the essence. This will take a minute.
A minute that I had to deal with pain and fighting Antithesis on low oxygen. Joy of joys.
Bruce raced towards the skirmisher, barely grabbing onto its tail with his teeth, allowing me to propel myself forward with the Bloodchaser and stab the creature several times. The propelling, however, seemed to pull an exhale out of me and left me deprived of a lot of important air.
I felt the pressure of the sea around me and of my own body fighting to stay awake. It was claustrophobic. Terrifying. It was everything I knew the sea’s dangers could be and more. Drowning, deadly creatures, pressurized deconstruction of the physical form. The world around me conspired to crush me into nothing, and it was working. It was working, and I felt like death was right there, ready to take me and pull me away. And yet…I couldn’t help but feel…inspired too. In my desperate and feverish mind, a cracked insanity dragged an idea kicking and screaming to the surface; something I would never have thought to try in any sane state, but something that I found terrifyingly brilliant.
“Haha…haha…,” I mentally laughed weakly.
Is your lack of oxygen affecting you this much? I am three-quarters of the way done with the installation. Please stay coherent until then.
“Kyos…what’s the most reactive metal in water you can think of that I could get right now? Something in the line with Cesium?”
Oh? Oh. Oh. I see.
“I can’t help but feel fresh inspiration when put under this much pressure. Place a Mako underwater, and she’ll explode with new ideas. I just want to place that into a more…physical manifestation.”
My Vanguard has mentally degraded. This information shall be noted.
“Smart-ass. Get me what I need,” I mentally chuckled. I was low on oxygen. Hell, I felt like my head was starting to get extremely light.
Unlocked: Class I Chemical Elements and Compounds = 50 points
Unlocked: Class II Chemical Elements and Compounds = 400 points, 1 token
Points reduced to…3200
New Purchase: Chemical Element 119 Payload
Points reduced to…3140
Get your revenge, Jeff.
A torpedo fired from Jeff’s side at the skirmisher that shredded its other flank as they crested nearest to the wall of charging Antithesis. I dove downwards and let my back be to the water’s surface as the torpedo hit its mark.
And then, the world went white.
Points increased to…12563, and two tokens.