“So… hooints would it take to make one of those ons a reality?”
Around four thousand points.
I sighed. “How is that, in any ossible for me right now?”
That’s why I said ‘in theory’.
“Fuck.” I stared dowively empty street, when another idea came to me. “Nyx… say I knew where a couple ons were located, they just o be recovered. Do I have the tech for that?”
That depends, where would you find said ons?
“Oher side of that building,” I said, pointing at the office I was using as a makeshift bunker, “attached to a massive mech.”
Nyx went quiet for a moment.
That would work, we could jury rig some carriages for them, but you’d need some sort of repair or stru bot to pull them off.
“Good, let's hope that oversized shrimp ran off like the rest of them.” I turned, only to find my team finally catg up to me. “You’re te.”
Spooky just shrugged at me iurn. My eyes narrowed, I wasn’t quite sure I liked how their personalities were developing.
“ I remove that bulkhead from the hallway?” I asked as I stomped bato the lobby.
Sure, from this side anyways. Pull the lever to the right and the reinforts should retract.
I eyed the giaal pte, anchored by spikes that had shot into the surrounding ceiling, floor and walls, then grabbed the giant lever in the middle and yahe spikes retracted almost instantly, leaving me supp the entire weight of the door. It’s a good thing I had upgraded my muscles, otherwise I might have been crushed uhe weight. With great difficulty I pushed the pte forward, letting it crash to the ground.
As the dust settled I gnced over at Spooky, “Alright smart ass, you first.” The bear saluted me, then pushed through the opening.
The street was quiet, there were a couple lower models moving around, but the bears quickly dispatched those as roached. Thankfully the Shrimp had already run off. I checked the cockpit first, it was thhly smashed. There wasn’t anything suspicious leaking from it but…
“Is he still in there?” I asked.
Probably, I ot tact his AI. It’s possible that he had an emergency teleport, or something simir, but those systems are expensive and rare.
I shook my head, “Well, if he did survive somehow I’ll just have to return his property ter. I now.” I turned, looking at the two huge ons the mech had instead of arms. The left arm appeared to be some sort of rotary on, ohat fired tank munitions. Unfortuhe on had been horribly maimed when the mech fell on it, the barrels were bent and crushed, I wasn’t going to be able to salvage it.
The right arm, oher hand, was pletely intact. I squi the on, “Nyx is that…”
Yes, it’s the XR’s big brother, the UHR-878. You have an empt version avaible in your catalog.
The thing was huge. Fiftee long, nine of which sisted of a split barrel ed with hundreds of magic accelerator coils. The other six feet were covered by a plex ector that seemed to be designed in order to handle recoil and ect the gun to the mech.
I griupidly at the on. “So it should be retively simple for me to salvage that and reuse it, right?”
It wouldn’t be simple, but yes if you pretty much bankrupted yourself you could buy the hover carriage and geor required to support the on. You wouldn’t be able to afford the bot required to remove it though.
“Fuck, I was really hoping to do this quick before the Antithesis came back. Is there anything I … no fuck it, I have an idea,” I announced. “Call the truck.”
Pardon?
“We’ll strap the gun to the bottom of my truck, cut the arm off, then move bad work on it a little farther away.”
That’s a surprisingly solid idea.
I narrowed my eyes. “Surprisingly?”
You’re not known for having amazing pns.
“I’m better at adaptation, I told you that. I need a cutting tool, I’m assuming that I have access to something that’ll wive it to Spooky along with whatever strapping we o move that gun.”
Spooky held out his arms and caught some sort of circur saw, then was almost buried in straps and s. As soon as my truck arrived I climbed up onto the gun and started attag the supports to the bottom of the trailer, looping them uhe gun, then eg the other side. The work went surprisingly fast, it only took about five minutes, I was a lot mile than I used to be.
As soon as I was down again I gave Spooky the signal to remove the arm. The saw cut surprisingly well, it must have been from my Thermal ons catalog because it glowed while cutting through the upper arm. Just when I thought I was going to get away with my spoils unnoticed, the Fifteeurned.
Turns out the Css II upgrade for my bots not only made them much tougher, but it also made them MUCH better shots. The earlier skirmish had carried on for a few minutes while my bears were exging fire with the Fifteens, this time the Antithesis artillery died almost as fast as they appeared.
Unfortuhe Fifteens weren’t the only Antithesis that appeared, threes and fours began to flood out of the farms and onto the street. Mentally I checked in on Spooky, just as the st e to the mech fell away. Time to go.
I ordered the bears into a fightireat, back to the parking area. Unlike my previous stand, the wave of Antithesis that swept up the street didn’t get close. Heavy and Dusty fired in short bursts that cut through small groups, while Bandit, Deadbeat and Spooky fired single shots at the closest targets. I’d almost fotten how effit my boys were pared to the liroops.
We got about a block when I found Bob, he was embedded in the side of a car and his entire front was caved in. I couldn’t tell if he’d recovered at all, or that was the inal damage from the Shrimp, so I just ordered the three bears I’d just bought to pick him up and carry him. As much as I wao che him, a him ba his feet, I had other things that I o deal with first.
By the time we’d retreated the five blocks back to our inal parking area the Antithesis had thinned out siderably. That was as much to the horde spreading out into almost every building along the way as it was to the sustained firepower of my team.
I set up my team in a defensive formation, had the bears put Bob somepce safe, then turo my prize. It was currently being held aloft by my truck, I just needed something to mount it in.
“Nyx, what do I o do to put this thing into a?” I asked as I ied the on.
Remove the remaining arm part, leave the recoil dampening array. It just requires removing the bolts eg everything together… I o buy some Css 0 tools, then I’ll borrow some of your bears.
“I do it, probably.”
Maybe, but the bears are strohan you, and I know what I’m doing.
“Fine.” I admit, I pouted a little. My oy was so close and Nyx wasn’t letting me help. I guess it was better in the long run, as the two bears quickly removed a half dozen bolts ahe cut arm fall away.
Alright, so since you have a transport catalog I buy a towable hover chassis for the gun. You also o open a peion catalog to power the on, I reend the Css I Advanced Peors Catalog, and pact biomass geors. It’s morbid, but you have to admit that using Antithesis is effit.
“Yeah, well, Whisperer uses dead Antithesis as ons, burning them for fuel isn’t a big thing. How much?”
Fifty for the Catalog, two geors at one hundred each, and a thousand for the carriage.
I paused, “That st part seems expensive, why?”
It needs built in recoil damping and stabilisatioures. You’ll uand when it fires.
“Fine,” I agreed grudgingly, “Let me see it.”
Purchased
Css I pact Peors Catalog - 50 points
Mark I pact Bio Geor x 2 - 200 points
UHR-878 Railgun Towable Hover Ptform - 1000 points
Points Remaining: 273 points
The empt materialised around the gun. It hovered above the ground, approximately twelve feet long and tapered from five feet wide at the front, to eight feet at the back. There were twe blocks mounted beside the gun at the back, Approximately three feet long, a foot wide and two feet high, probably the geors. The ehing had a series of massive swinging arms whided in massive spikes. I had no idea what those could be for.
The sound of gunfire brought me back to reality. The Antithesis oreet hadn’t let up, and the rest of the team were probably dealing with much worse. Time to see what kind of damage this thing could do.
