When I started off again I did so at a more cautious pace. I still had a little ways to go, and I didn’t want another Antithesis grabbing hold of me.

  Back when it was still used as a train station, the terminal must have been an impressive sight. Time had not been kind to the building. Graffiti covered the majority of the outside walls, the rails had long been pulled up and scrapped, and most importantly, at least for my purposes, a shanty town had sprung up beside it.

  Space wasn’t exactly limited in the undercity, but a place where you didn’t have to pay taxes to a landlord, or gang? That was at a premium. There was originally a huge railyard on the south side of the terminal. The area was unmanaged, unsupervised, and empty, perfect for squatting. Over the years the entire space was filled to the brim with maze-like streets and makeshift housing. Worse yet, when they ran out of space on the ground, they built up, leaving a rickety mess of catwalks, dead ends, and squalor.

  The locals called it The Stacks.

  Normally I’d never set foot in the place, even if it meant that I had to sleep on the street. Even the gangs wanted nothing to do with the place, it was a lawless zone. Any reasonable person would go around The Stacks, and approach the Terminal from a different direction. It wasn’t worth the risk. And that was before the Antithesis started crawling about.

  Special emphasis on crawling. Because from where I was standing, just outside The Stacks, I could see no less than three model fours, and another half dozen model threes stalking around the various levels.

  This does not seem wise.

  “No shit,” I grumbled. “I don’t want to go in there, but I’m not sure I want to waste time going around.”

  So, what’s the plan?

  “First, I need a different rifle,” I declared. “I have a feeling that if I take one bad shot with the CAR I may collapse half the district. Give me the same one as Spooky, the…”

  The T-22A Blackpaw.

  “Right,” I said, nodding to myself. “Then we’ll try and travel the higher paths to avoid getting cornered.”

  We need to work on your planning skills when this is all over.

  “Shut up and gimme a Blackpaw,” I snapped. “We need to move.”

  This time the rifle appeared right in my hands, and for the first time I was aware of how much everything weighed. My legs trembled, back bowed.

  Do you need a hand? I could hear the ridicule in Nyx’s voice.

  “I’m not too proud to admit it. If you wanted a beefcake for a vanguard you should have picked someone else,” I replied flippantly. I pulled the CAR off my shoulder and held it out to Spooky. “Carry this please.” The bot reached out with a single arm, grabbed the rifle and slung it on its back, not wavering in the slightest.

  “I’m beginning to believe I may be the one slowing this group down,” I muttered.

  Just get going.

  The nearest hovel had a ladder to the higher levels. Just not one I would trust would hold even my minuscule weight. Splintered wood rungs nailed directly into the plywood wall behind it, shoddy even for these streets. Instead of taking the ladder I found a stack of crates that had been roughly stacked together as makeshift stairs. That was a safer option, even if one of the boxes was completely rotten.

  The second level was a mess of corrugated steel roughly layered to create roofing for the buildings below, and scrap wood roughly nailed together to make makeshift railings and platforms. Ones that would likely splinter and break if anyone stumbled into them.

  “Lovely,” I muttered dryly. As I was looking around I spotted something skulking around on the other side of the street. When I squinted, looking into the shadows, I was just able to make out the silhouette of Model Four there. I brought the Blackpaw up and sent a quick burst in its direction, which missed, followed by three more. It was the fourth that finally found its mark, dropping the monster, and causing the structure to shudder.

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  That wasn’t a good sign.

  With the four dispatched I quickly turned and started moving towards the Terminal. I quickly regretted my decision to travel by the upper levels, every step was nerve wracking. Boards groaned under my slight weight, debris shifted and fell from above and, on more than one occasion, a fight with the Antithesis went sideways.

  I was barely a couple hundred meters in, when a model three attempted to jump across the alley to attack me. It didn’t even get a chance. As soon as the creature’s front paws touched the walkway on my side, the front of the building collapsed, dropping the Three in deep below. The crippled beast could barely move, making it such an easy target that even I could kill in a single burst.

  As I continued onward I began to be aware of a complete lack of people. The Antithesis worked fast, but fast enough to completely clear out an area this size? I couldn’t even see any blood.

  “Where the fuck is everyone?” I muttered to myself as much as Nyx. “The bodies? Do the Antithesis normally clean up this fast?”

  No, this entire situation is odd. The Antithesis are advancing far quicker than usual, and in a more coordinated manner.

  “Lovely, my first incursion and the killer aliens are acting smarter than usual,” I groaned. “Thanks for the boost of confidence.”

  I progressed forward slowly and steadily, dispatching the occasional three or four as I advanced. Everything was progressing smoothly, right up to the point where it went to shit.

  The first indication that something was wrong was a shift in the air, a breeze that wasn’t there before, along with a faint whooshing noise; Both of which were abnormal for the undercity. A moment passed, nothing changed, then a whistling noise from above. I moved out of instinct, rolling to the side and coming to a stop on some corrugated steel a few feet away, pressed to the ground by a burst of wind. A massive talon snapped closed on my previous position, a huge avian figure held aloft by four massive wings swept by, pulling up out of a failed dive. I managed to scramble to my feet just as it recovered and started to come around for another pass.

  “Spooky, CAR now!” I snapped, jumping to my feet and holding my hands out to catch the rifle.

  The bot unslung my rifle and, with one hand, threw it at my chest. With my small stature the blow was enough to throw me off my feet, knocking back to the ground. It also saved my life.

  A second flier ripped through the second level where we were standing, blasting debris everywhere, and throwing Spooky down to the street below. This time I didn’t bother to rise, I just brought up the CAR and let loose with a full barrage. The first few shots hit the second flier in the back, causing it to shudder, a slight adjustment caused the next few to hammer into the left wing, causing it to start falling, the last shot caught it right in the head.

  The body slammed into a building a few streets over, I didn’t have a chance to check on it, the first had come around for another pass. Even at a distance I could see its very un-bird-like face looking in my direction, its four eyes locked onto my position. It dove again, this time a barrage of missiles rose to meet it. I wasn’t sure if it died immediately, but it began to spiral down.

  Straight towards where I was standing.

  I scrambled to get out of the way. After one step I could hear a heavy crunch as it impacted the roof across the street. After two I could see the debris being thrown away as it slid forwards off the roof. On the third step the entire building shook. There was no fourth, everything came down.

  The landing was rough, my back slammed roughly into the ground and the world fell around me. Steel plates, splintered wood, and pipes fell all around, some smaller pieces slammed into my body partially burying my body, then after a few seconds, everything settled.

  “That fucking sucked,” I snarled, as I shoved a board off my face. Once I could see again I began wrestling with the larger pieces of debris that had pinned my legs, and torso.

  You’re lucky, those were model elevens. They’re airborne combat units that can also carry biomass large distances.

  The last, and largest plate was being stubborn. My inability to move it had nothing to do with my size, absolutely not. “I thought you said the airborne units were stuck above?” I snapped as I struggled with the plate. “They don’t look stuck to me.”

  That’s not what you should be worried about. We shouldn’t be seeing Antithesis in the double digits this early into an incursion, it’s a bad sign.

  “No shit,” I replied.

  The rubble behind me shifted, a wolf-like head pushed up. It was heavily mauled, two eyes were missing, flesh was ripped away, but still alive. It reared back for an attack, then took a burst of gunfire into the face. The creature twisted, trying to get away, Spooky didn’t give it a chance. Slowly advancing the bot fired burst after burst directly into the head until it was still.

  The bot was a little worse for wear, one of the visual sensors was shattered and its head was dented, but it was active. I sagged in relief.

  The good news is model elevens are worth 100 points a piece, so you’ve hit that threshold you set earlier. You want another bot?

  “Yes, but first…” I pushed the plate one last time, putting my entire body into it. It didn’t move an inch. Defeated, I laid back down. “Can someone please get this metal off of me?”

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