Anti-antithesis

Journos are a plague. A necessary one, but a plague, nonetheless.

-Vanguard Black Log as he watched Vanguard's War Games' first Press Conference

The questions didn't stop for the next hour that I agreed to field them. And the entire time, the running commentary from the theater didn't stop. But it did turn to more mocking of the journos instead of me.

“How many corporations do you plan on purging?”

“Bestlé. But they are headquartered on another continent, so that will have to wait.”

[Better question, how many news sites are we going to purge.] Opal asked.

“Are you in a relationship with Cari Mikosano?”

“Yes.”

“Is it out of pity?”

“Go fuck yourself.” I disintegrated their camera equipment while Cari asked Cody to purge their news site.

“Dozens of trucks leave and enter the tower you purchased, reportedly filled with food, and all heading to the undercity. Why waste food on those who fled society instead of those up here?”

“First of all, go live in the undercity for a year before you throw shade. Secondly, I can do what I want with the food I produce, and I choose to help those with no access to good food.”

Damian sighed. [Yeah, there's a reason I live in the Spire. I was lucky to get out, but I still remember my time there.]

“You have mentioned commanders, plural. How many are there and are they single?”

“There are eight commanders.” The screen behind me shifted to show their headshots, names, and specializations. “And all of them… most of them are single. Unfortunately, I do not know if those that are, are interested in relationships.”

[Outsider, who the hell is Gimbal?] I asked.

She giggled. [My paramour.] Everyone looked at her in shock and confusion, but she refused to elaborate.

Slowly but surely, all the good questions were being asked and answered until I still had fifteen minutes before I was set to end the press conference, but I really didn't want to answer questions about politics or sexual fantasies.

I sent Black Log a message.

[SwarmCommand: I'm done with this.]

[OceanMine: You lasted longer than I thought. You're good.]

I raised my hand, quieting the crowd. “Now, as much as I have enjoyed this,” <which I hadn't in the slightest> “I do have something else I must do. I would ask everyone to look to your right, where you should be able to just barely see the megabuilding I call home.”

Just as most people turned to look, I sent a signal to Morrigan.

I heard gasps from the crowd as the MAF Pandora floated up into view. The top of the hangar was a portal, which was connected to the space one hundred feet above the building, allowing the dramatic entrance of the Pandora breaching space as a whale breached the ocean.

“This is my flagship, the MAF Pandora.” I said, “And this is her maiden flight. For this exciting occasion, I plan to head north and clear out the hives between here and Targ before swinging west towards Kingman, then returning here. I do have one appointment to keep during the flight, at the Niltmore Hotel, which I will return to the city for, but otherwise I will be absent from the city until the MAF Pandora returns.”

With that, I walked off the stage and head towards my car.

<Synaptic, activate the punishment for my family, please.>

In the video call, I saw everyone had begun to stand and stretch as penguins began to clean up the scattered popcorn, while Cari was conspicuously absent. Suddenly, the room filled with bubbles as the fire suppression system activated. I heard shouts and yips in alarm as I laughed and ended the call.

I made it to my car quickly, slumping in the seat and letting out a heavy breath. I did it! I made it through an entire press conference, with my family heckling me, and I didn't flub any of my words or say something I didn't mean to. I felt super drained, however, as my social battery was very depleted. The drive to the Pandora was quick, mercifully, and as the car descended to the hangar and the car moved to a parking spot, I saw Cari waiting for me, smiling.

Stepping out, she quickly embraced me, placing her head on my shoulder. I melted into her arms, “You did a good job, love. I know how hard that was for you.” She said, kissing my temple. “Come on, love, let's get you to your captain's chair. You can rest on it before we reach the first hive location.”

I nodded, sighing as we separated. As we entered the hallway leading to the elevator, I saw quite a few white, bubbly forms rushing us. I grabbed Cari and activated my jump jets, launching us up as one of the forms tackled towards us, flying below us. Cari yelped, then laughed as I form a hard-light platform below us. The forms looked up at us as we heard Cody yell, “Get back down here, you fucker! You're not getting to the bridge without getting smothered by us!”

“What did you do to them?” Cari asked, laughing harder.

“I had Synaptic adjust the fire suppression system in the theater, changing it from a thick foam to something more airy and bubbly, and a bit less sticky” I said, slowly lowering us to be just above the white blobs.

The voice of Jill rang out, causing me to pause. “Victor.” She said, her voice indicating she was smiling, but her tone was dangerous. “Come here and get hugged.”

I lowered myself fully, allowing seven white blobs to embrace me, rubbing off as much of the foam onto me as they could. It wasn't very effective, but we were all laughing by the end of it, so I saw it as a good prank and punishment. Jill placed me into a head lock for my hubris.

**********************************

Sitting in the captain's chair after a quick shower, I seaw the other stations were filled as well. Jill, Alice, Opal, and Cari have taken spots in the side batteries stations, with Cody in the sensor chair, Roger in the engineering and shielding chair, Yerlette manning the drone control station, Buddy taking the Missile pods station, and Outsider at the navigation station. High Noon and the other Commanders had taken seats around a table in front of me, one that showed a very high resolution image of the space around the Pandora, currently zoomed in to show the surrounding two miles.

We were all also on a group call tied to Pandora's network, with each station having a jacked in link to allow easier direct control to their chosen part of the ship.

“All systems green” Roger said.

“Quite a few target locks, however none from any weapons systems.” Cody reported.

“All weapons are good to go.” Alice shouted.

I nodded as I jacked into the flight controls. I could feel that I had the option to take over certain systems, but I also felt that doing so would place massive strain on my mind and augs, so I focused only on the flight systems. “Outsider, plot us a course to the patrol route Black Log sent us.”

I saw a yellow line extending from the Pandora out of the city, so I flexed and felt my thrusters roar to life, pushing the ship forward. We were accelerating rapidly as the Shielding tech was pushing away the atmosphere in an attempt to reduce drag. We flew above the city rapidly, with a small convoy of news vans following after us. Black Log had informed me that they would do this, and that we were not obligated to protect them if they left the city walls, or if they decided to fly close to our weapons while we were in combat.

A little harsh, but I understood his reasoning. They were risking their lives to gather as much footage as possible of the Pandora in action, yet the age-old adage still held true. Fuck around and find out.

Soon, I entered the patrol route and saw it would be five minutes before we would be above the first hive. “Cody, can you see the hive from here with our sensors?” I asked.

“Kinda.” he answered. “Still getting used to the sensor array link, so I can feel a lump of… heat? Pressure? Something in the distance where the hive is supposed to be. Give me a bit and I should get better at this.”

“Yeah, I get what Cody’s saying.” Alice said. “Like, my hands are controlling my assigned cannons through the control panel, yet I also feel that I am doing it with just my mind. Super tripy.”

High Noon turned to her. “Direct Neural dream learning is a very strange experience at first, sweety.” he said while chuckling. “I had to go through the same thing when I first got Zera.”

“Zera?” Buddy asked.

“Yeah, Zera. She's my rifle, a huge, super complex machine that I can control like another part of my body when connected.” he explained. “She acts as an extra processor, making super complex calculations for me so that I can always hit what I want, when I want, with what I want.”

Cari chuckled. “I think it feels neat. It's still my body doing the actions, still my mind in control. And that means every shell and laser that hits is me killing a metric fuck ton of aliens. I can't wait.”

“Well, good news. You won't have to wait long.” Cody shouted. “I have a lock on the Hive. It's of a decent size and had taken root under Black Canyon City. Thankfully, every town on the I-17 was abandoned decades ago, so no need to worry about collateral damage.”

Both on the call and on the colored holo map, Cody marked the hive with some surprising detail, but not perfect clarity. It is pretty large, with the tunnels spreading about a mile under the town, and the central hive cavern being a few hundred feet large. There are a number of antithesis on the surface, tearing down old homes and dragging their remains below.

We were two minutes out as I slowed to a crawl. “So, here comes the first problem.” I said, my voice grave. “Who gets first dibs?”

Everyone went silent as the gunners eyed each other. Yerlette giggled, drawing everyone's attention. “Rock, paper, scissors is a very old game, yet it works wonders for making these kinds of decisions.”

Buddy shook his head. “Jill has never lost a single game in her life. I propose we roll dice for it. Two d-sixes, with the highest number going first, with each subsequent number determining the order we take going forward.”

“Sure, that works.” I said, rolling my eyes at Jill glaring at Buddy. “Cody, you have a dice roller program we can use?”

“Of course I do, Vic.” he said, flicking a program into the network.

Two dice appeared in front of Alice, Opal, Jill, Cari, Buddy, and myself, which we all grabbed and tossed at once. Swear words fill the call as Buddy gets the highest roll of eleven, followed by Alice, Jill, Opal, Cari, then myself. I glared at Cody. “Did you rig the dice to make me go last?”

“How dare you question my honor!” he said, looking actually offended. “I may fuck with a lot of things, but I would never mess with dice, especially in a roll I have no stake in.”

“Don't be a sore lover, Victor.” Buddy said, holding back a smile. “Now, If you don't mind, I am going to fire some missiles at some xenos. Comrade Morrigan," He said with a terrible Russian accent, "what do you recommend for today's ensemble?”

“Ah, Comrade Buddy! How kind of you to ask.” She responded in an equally bad Russian accent. “Your main loadout was chosen with much care, as you have four options today. For your first engagement of the day, might I recommend option 3?”

“Ah, yes. I couldn't agree more.” He said, and shortly after I felt four missiles fly out from the deck, rapidly gaining altitude and arcing towards the hive.

Before I could ask what he just fired, they suddenly accelerated straight down, impacting the ground almost instantly. Four huge balls of fire engulf the abandoned Black Canyon City for two seconds before they collapsed in on themselves, leaving a sheet of ice in their wake.

“The Mark two Thermobaric Oscillation Warhead.” Buddy began, his voice full of awe. “A two staged missile with extreme precision capabilities. Once the warhead detonates, it expends a huge amount of heat and fire from its core, burning at around five thousand degrees, before oscillating to a frigid negative eighty degrees, causing immense stress fractures in the area affected.” The tunnels collapsed, taking large swaths of the town with them. “As a bonus, it does prevent antithesis materials from spreading as it both burns hot and freezes instantly.”

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