“Hey Boss, check out the renovations, looking good, right?” Bob declared, as I stepped into the garage the next day.

  “Bob, the reconstructions started yesterday. They’re still measuring to figure out where they need to put the supports,” I sighed. “And where the fuck did you get a hardhat that fits your head?” I asked my oversized sidekick.

  “One of the nice people outside helped me make it in a fabricator. We’re in an active construction zone, safety first!” the bear replied, knocking lightly on the bright yellow helmet.

  “You realize that your head is probably a hundred times more durable than that helmet, right?” I grumbled.

  “Well now my head is ten percent more protected.”

  “That’s not how that works…” I replied, slowly lowering my head into my hands. “Also, it’s one percent; even I know that.”

  “Any percent is a good percent,” Bob declared.

  “Bob…” I started. Less than thirty seconds talking to Bob, and I already had a headache. Thankfully I received a call to distract me from the bear and his antics. I staggered back towards the residence as I flipped over to my augs.

  “Hello…” I droned.

  “Evelyn? Fuck! I thought you said you couldn’t find any antithesis? Are you fucking kidding me?” I flinched at Angeline’s outburst. I could count the number of times I’d heard her raise her voice or swear on one hand.

  “Woah, woah, woah, what’s going on? I told you the bears haven’t seen any antithesis in days. Are you saying you found some?” I asked, confused.

  “Some? They’re pouring out of the fucking ground. Based upon these numbers, I must be looking at least a dozen hives right now.”

  “You’re serious?” I asked.

  “Of course I’m serious! I tried to send some squirrels in to stem the tide, but they were overwhelmed before they could do much. Listen, I’m going to call Charlotte, get her to raise the alert, and get some teams to deal with them. I’ll send you the coordinates so you can arrange your defenses, or patrols, or whatever you have. There’s a whole lot of shit out there and you might want to intercept it before it hits one of the neighboring towns.”

  “Shit, yeah, I can do that. Tell Charlotte to contact me if she needs anything. I have plenty of troops to throw at the problem.”

  “Can do, talk to you later,” Angeline snapped before disconnecting.

  I turned on my heel and stormed back into the garage. “Bob, this is no time to play construction worker; we’ve got work to do. Where the fuck is Bandit?”

  “He’s monitoring the sector ten updates, why?” Bob asked me, a blank look in his eyes.

  “Because according to Angeline, the antithesis just erupted out of the ground in a dozen different places. I need someone to set up the defenses while I arrange the reinforcements. Since Bandit’s not here, it’s up to you until he gets back.”

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  Bob’s expression fell. “But I’m terrible at tactics, you know that. Can’t we wait until he gets back?”

  “No! We don’t have the time for that. He can take over the job once he gets back, but we need to get those defenses set up now! Fucking plants… I just thought they were too quiet, but I didn’t think they’d start a coordinated attack. How the fuck did they even manage that? A Twenty-Six?” I mumbled.

  “Maybe? That thing was pretty smart the last time we fought it, not much of a fighter though,” Bob replied as he fell into step behind me. “I managed to smash it up pretty easily.”

  I paused for a second and turned to look at the oversized bear. “That was rhetorical, Bob.”

  “Oh… I thought it was a question,” Bob replied blankly.

  “Just organize the fucking defenses!” I shouted before storming towards the garage. The bears were in a frenzy. I had the different squads jumping on the nearest Kodiaks and heading towards the nearby towns. I could only imagine the people outside panicking as I mobilized my full troops for the first time in nearly six months.

  As I approached my own Kodiak, Bandit came sprinting in through the open garage door. He skidded to a halt next to me, breathing heavily. I knew he wasn’t actually tired; it was probably just some sort of mimicry his AI was using to make him look more alive. It distracted me, just for a moment, before I shook my head.

  “Bandit, we’ve got antithesis pouring out of several hives around the area, and we’ve got to lockdown the local towns. I have Bob on it now… But you know how he is with organizing things. Take over from him, please. You can get the details from Nyx. This is your top priority,” I said.

  “You got it, boss,” he replied, snapping a quick salute before heading back towards the bigger bear.

  As I started pulling on my armor, my augs lit up again, but this time with a message I really didn’t expect.

  [Incursion Detected.

  Remain Calm and Proceed to the nearest Shelter.]

  I stared at the message dumbly for a minute. “What? Why did someone trigger the incursion warning system? These hives are a problem, but they shouldn’t have triggered the system… Nyx…”

  The alarm isn’t a mistake. Rifts have begun to manifest over the east side of the city. The city’s defense grid is already registering multiple seed pod strikes.

  “What?!?!”

  Not only that, but the bears you’ve sent to other cities have received similar alerts. Based upon the fact that the hives have gone active at the same time as the incursion and that the earth is facing multiple incursions at the same time, I suspect the antithesis have pushed their attacks on earth to the next level.

  “Fucking WHAT?!?!?!?” I repeated.

  Although I’d like to continue this absolutely stimulating conversation, you might want to actually snap out of your stupor and start dealing with this issue.

  “Right… fuck,” I muttered before turning back towards the garage. “Bandit, Bob, change in plans! There’s an incursion happening right now. Bob, you’re back on town defense; do what you can with the forces that are already there. Bandit, I need you to take control of the mobile units. The council still hasn’t finished replacing the city’s PMC units, so I need you to quarantine the area around the incursion!”

  The two bears stared at me for a minute.

  “What?” Bob said.

  “You heard me!” I shouted as I stepped onto the Kodiak. “And get in here! We’ve got work to do.”

  The pair sprinted across the space, and as soon as they stepped inside, I slammed the close door button.

  “So, where to, boss?” Bandit asked.

  “The incursion site,” I replied after a couple seconds. “If Angeline sticks with the original plan, then she should have asked Charlotte to inform the other samurai around the city about the hives. There might already be people moving to deal with those. Even if they aren’t, the hives are still lower priority, since they’re outside the city. We’ll have to rely on the town defense teams to keep the antithesis under control.”

  I shot Bob a quick glance. “So make sure you pay attention, even after we get to the battle zone.”

  The big bear gave me a quick salute and grin in reply.

  “We’ll stop at the perimeter and drop Bandit there so he can continue to monitor the defenses, then move directly towards the nearest pod site. Hopefully there are still a few samurai around so we can clear the area as quickly as possible. Once the situation in the city is stable, we’ll immediately have to move on to the area outside.”

  “Easy Peesy,” Bob chirped.

  “And then I’ll have to check on the situation of the other cities in the area to make sure they’re okay,” I continued, shooting the big bear another look.

  “Okay… slightly less easy.”

  I sighed. “I need you to be on your A game, boys—it’s going to be a long day.”

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