Swarm Ascendant

Denmark and Sweden became one in a set of shockingly one-sided elections. Many outsiders doubted whether the two nations could ever reconcile their past of being perhaps the worlds most quarrelsome neighbours in terms of wars fought, but fully 86% of the collected electorate voted for unification.

--"Scania, the early days", page 35

***

As we approached the small deciduous forest the hive was in, we started encountering a few Antis. So far only Model Ones, big black bird things with teeth instead of a beak. They weren't really threatening us, there weren't enough of them to form a proper swarm and do that, at least not yet. So, I used them for target practice with my plasma caster, to get used to the weapon. Well, I say target practice, I didn't even have to aim, it just shot them down mostly on its own.

Each time it shot, it hissed, as if it set the air on fire. Which it very well might have been doing, for all I knew. There was a very slight amount of recoil, barely noticeable really.

Targets Eliminated!

Reward... 3 Points

"These are worth one point each, then?"

[Indeed.]

"Let's move in and see if we cannot scare up something worth a few more." Red Knight said beside me. "I'll let you take point."

"That means I go first, right?"

A pause.

"Yes, that is what taking point means, Sylvi." came an amused reply.

"You cannot just expect people to know all these military terms." I replied with a huff.

Anyway, I sent my drones up and ahead, one to each side, trusting Red Knight to have my back. I set them to fly ahead of me a hundred meters or so, then started moving in, keeping an eye on both viewpoints. After 10 or so meters, I walked into a tree.

I heard a muffled laugh behind me.

"Don't." I warned.

"I'd never. Let me just save that video..."

"Wait, what?"

"Nothing. You just carry on."

I shook my head, then keeping an eye on all three viewpoints, the two drones and my own, I started moving in.

I didn't have to go far before I spotted more Antis, this time both dogs and birds. I knew we didn't have much to fear from these, so I kept going until I could see them with my own eyes, then started shooting the dogs with my MkII, letting the plasma caster on my shoulder handle the birds.

Targets Eliminated!

Reward... 32 Points

"I think you can stop notifying me each time I get points."

[Affirmative. Would you like me to keep a running tally visible in your augs?]

"That would be nice, thanks."

The number 36 appeared subtly in the corner of my vision.

As I moved further in, killing the occasional dog or bird, I started to relax a little. That's when a Model Four I'd missed suddenly whipped its tentacles down from the tree it was hiding in, down and right towards my head. I flinched, the plasma caster hissed off a few shots, then the hard bone tips of the tentacle scraped off of my helmet hard enough to knock me over. I tucked, turned the fall into a roll and came up on a knee with my MkII pointed in entirely the wrong direction. Another tentacle hit me, this time in the back. I managed to turn, aim roughly at the sneaky-ball-of-tentacles-with-legs and squeeze the trigger, letting loose eight micro-missiles that soon had the thing falling out of the tree with a wet squelch.

I was gasping for breath, and ran a hand over my helmet. Barely a scratch.

Target Eliminated!

Reward... 8 Points

Find X when 8 is 55% of... 15 points for a tentacle bitch.

"And what were you doing?" I said as I stood up and pointed a finger at Red Knight. "Laughing at me again, hmm?"

"No, this is quite serious. Learning by experience is a lot more effective than being told. I would have stepped in had you been in any real danger, though."

I took a deep breath. Right. I had armour on. I was, if not perfectly safe, then at least reasonably so. I just needed to be more careful.

"Okay. Okay. So, Eyon, how do I spot those bastards?"

[Model Fours prefer to lay in ambush, often above their intended targets, and are hard to make out visually. Especially if you aren't looking up. I would advice more caution, and maybe eventually we can look at upgrading both your vision and your reflexes, as well as adding additional useful senses.]

"You mean, better augs?"

[I mean replacing your eyes and neural tissue and upgrading your brain. And yes, better augments. There are multiple routes to go, both biological, mechanical and a mix of the two. The number of additional senses number in the thousands, of which hundreds would be useful in spotting Model Fours. Sadly, these are options for later, when you have more points available. I would suggest getting more drones, but you also lack the capability of usefully managing more than two at a time. For now, I recommend you keep an eye on the trees above you.]

"Thanks." I said.

[You're welcome.]

"I was being sarcastic."

[I know.]

"Are you okay?" Red Knight asked me.

"Yes, I'm fine." I snapped. "Are we getting close to that hive? I think I need to shoot something."

"We're a bit out, still. You'll know we're getting close when the Antis start getting riled up and come at us in numbers."

"Let's go, then."

On the way, I kicked the dead model four, which squelched. It made me feel a little bit better.

We moved out, this time moving even slower both because I found myself scanning everything even more closely, and because the number of Antithesis was going up. At some point it felt like something changed. We were no longer just walking into the Antis, they were actively running towards us, seeking us out. There were more fours in the trees, swarms of birds were descending on us, and dogs were coming at us from pretty much ever angle. Soon, Red Knight had to start shooting as well. He had a short rifle in each hand, one firing streams of what felt like pretty regular bullets, the other blowing up entire swarms at once with each shot.

"Seems we've been noticed" he remarked casually in a lull between groups.

"You think?" I bit out, rather more harried. I had pulled my drones in closer, arranging them for 360 degree coverage. "Eyon, one reload, please."

I pulled out the magazine under my rifle, dropped it, and a new one appeared in my hand.

New Purchase: Hummingbird Mk II-A Micro-Missile pod - 3 points

Points reduced to... 614

"Handy," I grunted, before slamming it into the rifle and missing the slot. I took a bit more time and inserted it properly, ignoring the snicker behind me.

"It'll get trickier from here on." Red Knight said after a moment.

Almost on cue a massive, van-sized Antithesis with six legs and a covered in bony plates charged through a tree and towards us. I immediately focused my fire on it, ignoring the dogs also rushing towards us around it, letting my plasma caster take care of them, and ignoring the slower fours stumbling our way for now. The six-legged menace shrugged off several salvos from my MkII, before Red Knight shot it with his single-shot rifle and blew up its face and most of one of its front legs. It slid to a stop, and I started to pick off threes and fours one after the other from my side of the forest, letting Red Knight worry about his. Then I spotted a bunch of Threes who had circled around and was coming in from behind, so I had to spin in place to keep the closest threat in sight. I continued shooting until my rifle ran out of missiles, then dropped it and grabbed a H-bird from my side and carried on shooting. That ran out of ammo too, so I grabbed the other one and looked up and around only to see no more Antis running at us.

I gasped for air, trying to calm my beating heart, then picked up my MkII.

"Reload, please, and never mind the notification."

I reloaded, then looked over to Red Knight.

"Are we sure this is the best way to handle this?" I asked.

Red Knight laughed.

"What, aren't you having fun?"

"Of course not! This is the most stressed I've ever been in my life!"

"Oh. Well, I still think you should at least see the hive before we pull out and consider just blowing it up from the air."

"Can you show me a picture of one instead?"

"Eh? Oh, I guess. You know, most Valkyries would consider this a fun bit of exercise."

"Yeah, well I guess I'm not most Valkyries, then." I grumbled. "I'd really rather not carry on like this, if it is all the same to you."

"Fine, fine. We can head back to the IFV and I'll see if I can't find a way to take care of this without burning down the entire forest."

We jogged back in silence, occasionally interrupted by a shoulder gun autonomously taking down a bird.

As we reached the IFV, I had a bit of a stitch in my side. I decided I probably needed some more regular exercise, if I was going to keep this up.

"So..." I gasped for air, then continued. "How... how are we... going to deal with... with the hive?"

"Don't you worry, I have just the thing. We'll just fly right over it, then deliver it to their doorstep."

He stepped up to the opening door on the IFV, then got in and closed it after himself. I moved around to the other side and did the same.

I re-racked the MkII, but when I went to detach the Plasma Caster, Red Knight stopped me.

"No, keep that one. Oh, and here, have a reload. It won't do for a Valkyrie to be completely unarmed. Should tide you over until you figure out what you want to specialize in yourself."

"But..."

"Just think of it as something to remember me by, eh?" he said, then moved back to the seats at the front.

Once we'd settled in to our seats, we took off and flew back over the small forest. It took depressingly little time to find the actual hive compared to how long we'd been moving around in the forest on foot. We flew over it, a few hundred meters up so as not to attract too much attention. The hive was a mass of roots, hanging and sprouting from multiple trunks, spreading over the ground in a mess of a network. Foliage sprouted from all over, and in between it hung bulbous sacks in which I knew the Antithesis grew its many bodies. All over the ground and roots were Antithesis, Model Threes skirting the edges, a few bear-like Model Fives hanging out closer to the centre, and over all of the roots and trunks climbed the monkey-like Model Tens. Over it all flew Model Ones, the highest of which looking to be noticing us. There had to be hundreds of Antithesis down there, all in all.

"You ready?" Red Knight asked all of a sudden.

"Eh, sure? Ready for what?"

"The fireworks, naturally! Gyaron, do the thing!"

As he said this, the IFV started to ascend away from the hive.

"What thing?" I asked.

"Drop the bomb, of course!"

We started to move forwards, still ascending.

For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then the sky lit up and the counter in the corner of my vision went nuts.

Targets Eliminated!

Reward... 1023 Points

Reward... One token

Current Point Total: 1942

Well then. That was rather a lot of points.

Red Knight turned the IFV around so we could look at where the hive used to be, and where there was now a raging firestorm. It didn't look to be spreading outwards, but contained itself to a few hundred meters in diameter. I suspected techno-bullshit.

"What about the stragglers in the forest?" I asked after staring at the roaring fire for a few seconds.

"We'll call in a cleanup crew. There are Valkyries that specialize in exactly that, making sure we don't leave any Antithesis stragglers or remains. It doesn't take much to start a new hive, after all."

"I see, so that is also something you... I mean, we can do."

"Yeah, it's a low risk role, but the points are correspondingly meagre. Still, it's important work. Speaking of, I get the feeling you're done with work for the day?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty beat, and my arm is starting to get a bit sore."

"I'll drop you off back at the farming compound then, yeah?"

"Yes please, I should still be able to find a bunk, even if I'm no longer working there."

Red Knight turned the IFV back towards the farming compound and started to accelerate towards it. A niggling thought came back to me.

"Eyon, what's a token?"

[You earned your first token for aiding in successfully destroying a hive. Catalogues of Class II or higher require tokens to unlock, in addition to their vastly higher point costs.]

I frowned.

"Why?"

[Because the contents of each successively higher class of catalogues are vastly more powerful than the previous. So, we need to make sure only those responsible enough to unlock such power actually do so.]

I mulled that over for a while.

"So, I've been thinking..." Red Knight eventually said, looking towards me with his faceplate up.

"What about?"

"Your name. I was thinking something bee or wasp related. You know, because of the colour scheme."

"I... see?" I asked dubiously.

"Yeah. So, how do you like Hornet?" he asked with a grin.