Anti-antithesis

A lot of Samurai get stuck at what we call Tier III for a variety of reasons. Not to say that that's a bad thing, I mean, look at Samurai like Myriad and Maniac, but it does limit the overall strength of Samurai as a whole when we do need to have more Tier IV or even Tier V Samurai for future crises.

The greatest cause for this is one of two reasons. The first is an inner drive to progress, which fizzles out after a while once they get comfortable with their level of strength or their community is safe. The second is misspending of tokens, which are required for higher levels Catalogs. They are so easy to obtain early on, but after certain milestones are reached, you need to work very hard to obtain even one.

-Interview of Samurai Black Log for Samulyfe, 2053

Yerlette sent out a cloud of spherical drones to get a better view of the aftermath, and the damage was impressive. While the ice was melting at visual speeds, there were still some statues of Model Threes and Fours mid melting from the blast dotted around Black Canyon City. The tunnels were fully collapsed, so we couldn't explore them, but we were able to confirm that the hive was fully extinguished through the Void Watcher sensors.

“Goddess, Victor. Why do you have this whole ship when a few missiles would be enough?” Opal asked, awe and… something else in her voice.

“I can answer that!” Morrigan said, bouncing in the call. “First and foremost, it's because the MAF Pandora is awesome! She was a great challenge that allowed me to grow nicely. Secondly, these missiles are really only good for young, weaker hives like this one.”

“Weaker?” Cody asked incredulously. “It was buried under the entire city! How was this considered weaker?”

“Easily, kid.” High Noon said. “No sign of anything stronger than a Six. A few Eights, sure, but no real double digit models. And while the hive structure was large, there's not a whole lot of biomass available.”

“Correct in one, Damian!” Morrigan placed a gold star on his avatar. “See these models that were tearing apart the buildings? Most of these old places used wood in their construction, so the xenos that were in emergency rationing mode, were desperate for every scrap of available material, probably in order to shift to be able to convert the soil itself.”

News vans started circling the devastation and I heard Roger chuckle. “Sands, you should see these live feeds. Everything from how you ‘disregard the sanctity of the old world’ to ‘Holy shit, beeg explosion’.”

I checked my point total and frowned. “Why didn't I get a token for that?” I asked.

Because you have hit a threshold where simply destroying small hives like this is not that impressive. You will need to destroy ten small hives like this before a token would be rewarded, or two medium hives like the one in the Tonto State Forest Reserve. Not to mention that unless you are actively controlling the weapons of the Pandora, you will receive a penalty in points obtained. Currently, you will receive sixty percent of the points as normal if others are manning the battlestations with you on the bridge. If you were not here, you could expect to receive twenty percent.

“Yeah, well, good for them.” Alice said impatiently. “Let's get a-move on! It's my turn next and I want to fire the plasma cannon!”

I chuckled at her as she was bouncing in her seat. “Very well. Increasing speed. Yerlette, can you recall the drones in time? Or do I need to send a shuttle to pick them up?”

“We will be fine, just keep to the cruising speed.” She responded, which was good enough for me.

Our route let us straight up the I-Seventeen to Targ, where we would fly a few miles to its north and swing west towards the Grand Canyon, going until we reached Kingman, then turn south east back to New Phoenix. The entire patrol was set to last three days, which seemed like a lot, considering one could drive across the state in a day, but we would be flying at fifty miles per hour, stopping pretty often, and taking breaks to sleep. I'm also sure High Noon would leave at some point and take some people with him, which could adjust the timing.

My thoughts were interrupted as Cody marked the next hive, about ten miles to the north east. Alice grew excited and tried to aim at the hive from here, but grew frustrated as we were too far. “Hurry, hurry, hurry up! Just six miles and I can fire these big guns.” She whined. Her father just chuckled.

Shortly after, I got a proximity alert as a news van angled to try and land on the pads. “Fucking mosquitoes.” I muttered. I activate some of my AA guns and point them at the van, broadcasting a message, doing my best to act as if I was the ship.

“This is the MAF Pandora. You are flying too close to me. Fuck off to two thousand feet away or get shot.”

The van was not deterred. “Outsider, can you remote control the van to piss off or do I need to act upon my threat?” I asked.

“Annoyingly, they have shielded themselves from any remote signals.” She answered.

Hearing that, I went on alert. No reason to shield yourself near a Samurai Warship unless you were planning something stupid. So, I sent out one more broadcast. “You fucked around. Time to find out why I'm a Memo Class Heavy Cruiser.”

I opened up onto the van, lighting it up with six different Vulcan rotary cannons. It very quickly turned to scrap metal, but not before exploding in a huge fireball, spraying liquid something everywhere.

“What the fuck!” Cody shouted. “That thing was packed with explosives that could have actually damaged the hull! Not to mention that liquid, sensors are showing it is burning crazy hot”

“Can you figure out who the van belonged to?” Cari asked with a chill in her voice.

“Yeah, but not quickly.” He grumbled. “Outsider is faster.”

Leman stood. “I will go where Sister points.” He walked off the bridge as I felt his pack move to load into a shuttle.

“Alright, I'm within range. Vickie, turn a bit to the left so I can get a clear shot.” Alice said, entirely unperturbed about the situation.

“Vickie?” I heard Jill mutter with a smile. I dread my future, but shifted the Pandora thirty degrees to the left to give Alice the shot. The hive in question was mostly underground, and there was a dome of chitinous materials covering it.

“Alright, first up! Opening volley of sixteen inch Overpenetration High Exploding shells!” Alice shouted with manic glee. I felt the battery shift, its four sixteen inch guns adjust to hit the target less than four miles out. The target was locked, and I heard Alice giggle. “Fire!” She yelled as she slammed a big red button on her station. The Pandora shuddered slightly as the cannons responded, and we watched the super sonic shells fly into the distance. Alice moved the Plasma Cannon next and locked onto the hive, getting ready for the follow up.

Four shells impacted the hive, cracking it like an egg and releasing a cloud of steam before a fireball escaped from the holes. “Firing Plasma Payload!” Alice shouted once more, slamming the red button again.

The plasma cannon lit up brightly as concentric rings of superheated gas flowed through them. Suddenly, a huge beam fired, striking the hive in moments with a continuous strike, one where she made micro adjustments to burn as much of the hive as possible. I heard her go from a giggle to a true manic laugh as she fired the sixteen inch batteries again, these shells filled with a napalm like substance that caused even more destruction.

She fired the Plasma cannon for thirty seconds before it needed to be reloaded, and the sixteen inch cannons eight times, the entire time laughing like a maniac. Damian rolled his eyes. “And this is why she isn't allowed to use Zera…” he muttered.

After the cannons stopped firing and the only sound on the bridge was Alice panting for air, Cody gave his report. “Hives gone. Uh, we should probably send a shuttle to make sure there are no stragglers, but the main structure is definitely gone.”

Damian stood up and walked over to Opal. “Hey, could you…?” He nodded to Alice. Opal sighed, but did nothing to hide her smile. “This doesn't mean I'm skipping my turn, guys, just swapping with Cari.” She got up and picked Alice up in a princess hold, where Alice wrapped her tail around Opal's waist. Opal then left the bridge while Yerlette clicked her tongue.

[LilSam: Do I want to know?]

[Fops4life: Later]

With that, as Vulkan took a shuttle to clean up the eviscerated remains of the hive, we moved on to the next hive, but this one was different. It was above ground, having taken over the remains of Cordes Lakes. We could see two distinct masses, indicating that this was two hives that merged at some point. Jill adjusted in her seat, clearly excited. “Don't worry, guy. I won't go manic just by firing a laser canon.”

I smirked. “What if I added a railgun to the mix?”

She paused before smiling a bit wider. “I won't say no to that.”

As we got into position, we saw a huge cloud ascend from the hive and fly towards us. All the news vans took cover behind the Pandora, yet not perfectly as to block their lines of sight. “Ones, Elevens and Twelves, a little over two thousand in total.” Cody reported.

“I'll take care of them, “Yerlette said, “Plenty of drones and torpedoes I can use. You focus on the ground, Jill.”

“Don't need to tell me twice.” She said as she lined up a shot with the Rail Guns.

I gave her access to two of them and loaded them with what Synaltic called ‘The Ice Age’. Ten of the torpedo tubes launched Hellfire missiles into the oncoming swarm of fucked up birds, which split into smaller missiles that penetrated deeper into the flock. As they exploded, they launched sticky fire everywhere, coating more than seventy percent of the flock, which burned very nicely. A few of the larger models made it through the burning cloud, but they were harried by dozens of smaller drones with laser weaponry.

“Firing timed Ice Age at the ferns.” Jill announced. I felt the Rail Guns wind up, drawing a huge amount of energy in an instant from the generators as two lines of frost shoot out from below, slamming into the hive before a pulse of air and cold occurs, flash freezing the hives and everything within a quarter mile of it.

“Woah.” I heard Roger whisper, and I can't help but agree as snow falls in the area for a few minutes, the sensors indicating that the pocket of frost we just created was about negative seventy degrees, causing a mild tornado to rip through the area as an after effect.

As the last of the fliers were eliminated by Yerlette and her drones, I shifted the Pandora to the right. “You want to fire the laser, Jill?”

“Nah.” She said, “Nothing left to shoot. I'll let Opal do that once it's her turn. Gotta say, that was a pretty crazy experience already. I could feel the electricity flow through the railguns as the cold of the shell and it felt… addicting.” She chuckled darkly. “Shame Hilda has only let me take a break from training till tonight. Might be able to get a few more shots off, if you'll allow it.”

I rolled my eyes. “Only on the above ground hives. Those things don't work that well underground or through rock.”

“But you have other payloads.” Cari said teasingly. “Like this one, ‘Ion Chaos’. Plus, while the two in front are still cooling down, the two behind are still good to go.” She fluttered her eyelashes at me.

“Alright, love. You can fire the railguns at the next hive.” I chuckled, my answer causing her to pump her fist. I moved the Pandora towards said next hive when Bahamut spoke up. “Sire, I have just received a request from Lady Cassandra’s contact in the Keiretsu, informing us that his boss, Susan'o, is able to talk in a few minutes.” He chuckled. “It seems like this display of violence has rattled them slightly, considering they know we plan on stopping by in a few months.”

I nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. Kinda forgot about them, to be honest. I'll take him on a private call once he is ready. Roger, you have the helm once I go on call.”

Roger looked back to me with both shock and excitement. “Does that mean I get to be in the fancy chair?”

“No. I'm still going to be here, just on a virtual call.” I said, causing him to deflate in an exaggerated manner.

“Wait, you guys are going to Japan?" Yerlette asked. “When? Why? Is it related to Cari?”

“Yes, the plan is to head there in October, maybe early September.” I explained.” And it is, indeed, related to Cari. That said, we are planning to be there for three weeks, doing a tour of the country as well.”

“October, huh?” Yerlette muttered. “And since dad is away… Uncle Damian-”

“We can talk about it later, Yerlette, especially since I will need to talk to Opal's mom about it.” He said, cutting her off.

“Sire, they are ready for you, now.” Bahamut said, cutting me off before I could tease Yerlette about planning to go without even asking us.

“Yeah, got it.” And I slipped into my Virtual meeting room.

To clarify "Where the Hell is Targ on a map?", Luuuc, the author of Sudden Death Punch, has stated that Targ is the city portion of Flagstaff currently, while Flagstaff itself has solely become the college portion.

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