Anti-antithesis

Think you have what it takes to join the Cube? You don't, but you can try anyways…. No, I know this is a recruitment thing, but anyone who knows anything about the Mesh knows what the fuck the Cube is! And if you know, you either have already tried, or are too chicken shit to try!... I don't give a fuck what Dail-Up said, we don't need more testers for- wait, is this still recording?

-Recruitment message that caused thousands of applicants to flood the Cube's Mesh Node, resulting in one applicant making it through the Beta test of the new Cube Gauntlet, 2055

Cody

Mother fucking script Kitties and their bullshit coding ethics. The entire network of this satellite was a scrambled knot ball of memes, dead ends, and glue, with it somehow working as intended as a functioning firewall where their actual firewall was required to be passed through to access fucking anything!

“Outsider, please tell me you have had a better time accessing this bullshit.”

Outsider, the eldritch Goddess that was my brother's cheat code for hacking that I was super jealous of, glanced at me briefly through the group chat before looking back at the carnage she was inflicting on the swarms of drones trying to kill her and Jill.

“Unfortunately, not, Young Master Cody.” She said in the same neutral tone she always said everything in, pissing me off more. “It seems as though this code base is written in its own unique cipher language, one that I am unable to penetrate nor decipher.”

I was afraid she would say that, as that meant we were well and truly fucked on the network side of things. I stood up and walked forward to one of the soldiers Rogal had subdued, jacking into his augs in some vain hope that he had access to a map of the station, or Sands forbid access to the network.

I got lucky with the map, as it gave me a detailed image of the engineering sector Rogal and I was clearing, which did include the security room, but not much else. It seems that his buddies yoinked his access once he was knocked unconscious, much to my consternation.

I pulled out my pistol and fired a few shots onto the cameras surrounding us in frustration, hitting half of them. “Rogal! Sending you a path to, hopefully, a way to take control of the defenses.”

Rogal, the big gold bastard, nodded as he received the map and path I marked on it. He and his smaller golden minions stomped forward, expanding their shields to block the already cramped service hallway as they fired lasers into the static defenses and the wall of drones doing their damndest to stop us.

I followed closely, taking pot shots on cameras I could detect, turrets, and the occasional human, muttering curses at the IT team who lived here and promising vengeance upon their bones.

Thankfully, the journey to the security room was smooth, with the caliber of bullets being unable to dent Rogal's shield meaningfully and their armor being way too shit to block even the lowest power settings on his laser pistol. The problem was the thick bulkhead blocking us off from progressing.

I moved to a side panel, some keypad that I assume was connected to the door, and ripped it off the wall. I saw both electrical wires as well as a ribbon cable, and I thank the Sands that these troglodites didn't fuck this instal up.

After a bit of tinkering, I jacked into the ribbon cable and quickly accessed its settings, then felt my anger spike once more.

“Piss guzzling fuckwits! I hope you choke on your energy drinks and your Mesh History is made public!” I shout as I rip out of the makeshift jack.

All this keypad did was send a signal that someone with access is at the bulkhead, from which I assume the security cucks would check the cams, that I already shot, then decide whether they would open the door or not.

“Rogal! Eta on how fast you can rip this chunk of metal to shreds?”

Rogal placed a hand on the bulkhead and pressed into it. I heard his armor's hydraulics engage, causing the metal around the bulkhead to groan.

“They didn't skimp on the metal, Cody.” Rogal said. “Class II stuff. And since I am a builder and a defender first and foremost, I will be slower to dig my way through compared to my brothers. Five minutes, tops.”

With that, Rogal's shield expanded into a bubble around us and his minions, with them forming a protective wall behind that. His arm dissolved to its endoskeleton as his nanites began the process of cutting a hole through the bulkhead.

Taking this moment to breathe, I flicked through the other squad feeds to see how everyone was doing.

Roger, Morrigan, and Leman were progressing quickly a few floors above us, making their way to what we hoped was the central bunker while clearing out the common area sector. Roger was singing that old ass meme song while taking pot shots at some heavy mechs.

Jill and Outsider were even further above us, currently making their way through a huge garden or forest of some sort towards the main control room. I quickly moved feeds as Outsider went full on eldritch horror over the uncanny valley Goddess her normal form is.

Baba Yaga had a few shuttles on patrol around the station, labeled as “on standby” for any emergencies while she was doing her best to disable the orbital weapons targeting systems. Morrigan had already drawn up upgrades for the whole base, so any damage was simply making replacements easier.

Then there was Opal and Buddy, leisurely walking through a biodome with birds and small animals and shit, approaching a cabin made of actual wood. I refused to believe it was Faux wood, considering how much fucking money these assholes had.

I was about to close the feeds when Opal suddenly exploded with movement, growing rapidly as she arrived at the door and ripped it off the wall. Inside, I saw quite a few people chained to the floor, wearing rags and covered in dirt.

They didn't scream at Opal's form, nor did they move. They just stared at her, eyes vacant. Buddy did a quick medical scan on them, detecting that they were physically healthy, yet unresponsive to most external stimuli.

After destroying their shackles, Buddy was able to get them to follow him back to the shuttle while Opal swept through the rest of the cabin, trying to find anything that would explain what the fuck was going on with the captives.

Before I get an answer, Rogal pings me, letting me know that he is almost through. His minions adjusted, with two of them flaking me to make sure I didn't take a stray shot.

With a shove, a huge chunk of the bulkhead flies inward a few meters before falling to the ground.

The hail of gunfire I was expecting to restart didn't happen. There was no explosive decompression, or explosions at all. We walked forward into the next room, which looked to be a massive warehouse of spare parts and toiletries, with a few elevators on the far side.

I saw the door that led to the security room open, which did nothing to ease my anxieties. “Rogal, put the shields at max output and do a sweep of the area with your strongest scanners. Years of horror tropes may have made me paranoid, but I would rather be safer than sorry.”

All of the Minions deployed their shields simultaneously while I got a new readout from Rogal. While there was nothing in the room with us, he did detect four hidden hatches built into the walls and ceiling, with large tunnel-like tubes that led somewhere.

“Seal those off and have your minions posted up by them.” I ordered as I began walking towards the security room.

A few minions outer shells dissolved into Defense Swarms, moving to bubble up around the openings while the rest set up defensive positions, ripping up the floor to create barriers.

As soon as I set foot into the security room, the hatches explode, being contained in the hardlight bubbles. Smoke began pouring out of the tunnels, but were also contained. Shapes slammed into the bubbles, stirring the smoke and only revealing clawed hands and feet of some creature, scratching at the hardlight bubbles in an attempt at breaking through.

The minions opened fire, turning their weapon power level up a notch. With each laser slipping through the bubbles and hitting whatever the creatures were, screams and yowls of obviously alien nature rang out from the creatures, as blue blood filled the bubbles.

I linked my feed into the group call, adjusting it to be a high priority so everyone could see it. “Attention! Alien fuckers in the vents coming from some hidden storage space.” I shouted as I took over the security terminal.

And, just my fucking luck, this terminal only affects this sector! At least I obtained a full station map from it. I also figured out where the IT fuckers are located, bringing a fierce smile to my face.

“Rogal! New destination!” I shouted as I ran towards a different service hallway. Rogal simply sighed and jogged ahead of me, his minions regrouping and reforming, opening up the tunnels to allow whatever creatures within to follow as well.

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

Jill

I saw the alert from Cody, but ignored it as I plunged my bladed fist through the face of a bipedal cat creature as Outsider's Ravens formed a sharp dome around me, keeping most of the others out.

“A little too late, little brother!” I muttered under my breath, observing the non-euclidian silhouette of Outsider through the small gaps in the bird barrier. Tentacles and blades and teeth tore through the hoards of these cats as we made our way towards the central control room at the top of the satellite.

Blue blood coated the floor, making it very slippery and filling the area with the scent of copper. A few of the cats would slip past Outsider and her bird barrier, taking a lot of damage in the process, only to be met with my blades for their efforts. I was certain she was letting them through, but I wouldn't call her out for it, recognizing that she was being nice in her own way.

“And you are sure you can shut this place down once we reach this room, right?” I said at a normal volume despite the audio pollution the Ravens were making.

A tiny Raven that was hovering next to my head nodded as Outsider's “harmonic” voice resounded from it. “{Consideing I should not need to hack through the unintelligible code and should be able to directly tap into the systems, yes. Only another half mile to go, Big Sister.}”

I had to fight to stop the smirk from forming on my face when she called me big sister. Sure, my brother's called me that on occasion, but mostly as a jest or as sarcasm. Outsider, in all her… otherness, called me that with full sincerity. Cari does as well, and I loved her for it, too. I always wanted sisters, and now I have so many. Maybe I should take them shopping soon. That's what sisters did, right?

I cut another cat in half with my leg blades as we moved forward at a decent pace, falling into a nice trance-like dance as Outsider sang a song of her own making out of dozens of mouths on dozens of Ravens, keeping with my tempo. It was a ballet of blood and blades with no rehearsals and no practice, yet we played our parts in perfect sync.

I lost track of time as the cat people petered out, going from a constant stream to a trickle, only to stop once we reached the control room door.

I walked up to it and did a cartwheel, cutting through the thick security door as if it wasn't there. Did Outsider soften it up for me? No idea, but seeing the faces of the terrified shitsticks manning the controls, aiming their shaky guns at me made me smile.

“Good evening!” I said, my tone light and full of joy. “As I am in a great mood, I shall offer you one chance! Drop your guns and you live! Do literally anythin-”

A dozen guns hit the floor with those who held them falling to their knees, while the other dozen or so pulled their triggers and shot me. I let the bullets hit my armor, feeling some slight pressure around my heart and head, as well as two that hit my leg. I was actually impressed that five bullets even hit me.

I shook my head, having those who fired at me marked on my HUD. I didn't say anything as the Unkindness of Ravens flew into the room, blotting out the lights as screams resounded from their mass.

Once the sound died down, the Ravens all perched on every available surface while Outsider walked into the room, smiling softly as her void-like eyes scanned the space.

“Something large just shot out of the bottom of the station.” Baba Yaga announced over the comms. “Looks like a drop pod. It's too fast for me to catch up, so I shot down Vulkan and his minions. Five minutes before he hits the surface, while Jim is seven minutes out. The pod will hit the surface in three.”

I sighed and looked at the ceiling in exasperation. “Alright! Who launched the thing?” I said loudly. “And who knows what the thing was?”

All of the surviving people looked towards a space where a person once stood, but was now occupied by a blood stain.

“Of fucking course he's already dead.” I mutter.

Outsider placed a hand on my shoulder reassuringly. “All is well, Big Sister. I have control of the station now. What it is will be known soon.”

I place a hand over hers, nodding softly. “If you say so. I will let you do your thing, so I am going to take a seat and drink some water. Also, send me that song you sang, it was really good.”

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