“Expect the-”
Last words of a PMC near the front lines. - 2040
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No swear words come to mind for this. Just…
I knew things in the area were bad, but this. This is a whole new level of bad.
Okay, so rewind to the start of the meeting.
The NOVA area had three massive towers where most people lived. Each separated into their own speciality: The Tyson Tower was the entertainment and shopping hub which also held the majority of the offices for the various corporations. The Fairburke tower was the home of the wealthiest and most elite as well as most of the major politicians. The Woodbridge tower was for lower income people like me. Between them was the sprawl of suburbs, shopping centers, and more that didn’t quite make it into the towers.
There was supposed to be a fourth that had just finished development before the antithesis overran it. The Stafford spire. It was a bit further south but it was recognized that as the population grew and needed more room, particularly with refugees from the area flooding in, a fourth tower was needed. It was going to be for the middle class, a few offices, and home to many of the military contractors. Everyone could see its husk still looming into the sky, empty and unused, or so we thought.
I had been dragged into a meeting just after meeting up with my old coworkers by upper level family members. Taken to the nice and quiet confidential conference room with all the nicest soundproofing, no windows, and more money could buy to make sure whatever was said in the room was left with the people they wanted. In the room were some nice and shiny starred people from the army, marines, and air force. At the front of the room was a man I only knew about in passing since I was never high up enough to even get to say good morning to him. The head of the local family branch.
“Good morning Anachronist. Please sit down.” He offered me the nice and comfy chair at the head of the table. “Please keep what you are about to learn to yourself. This is a need to know basis to the level other Samurai are not permitted to learn about it until we can be sure they will not leave the area.”
I shrugged and sat down glad my hangover was almost gone. I had no clue I was in for a headache that would make the last one feel like someone gave my head a small flick.
The door was closed and a 3d map of the abandoned Stafford spire and the surrounding sprawl popped up. “This is the Stafford area.” He explained as the view changed to a sea of yellow, orange, and a few light red spots around the spire. “And this is our current knowledge of the antithesis concentration in the area.”
It was bad out there, worse than I had expected even. It was clear there were hives set up all over the place. It was hard to clear them out when not many Samurai wanted to come close to the area to begin with, but the military made it worse by insisting the area was their duty to clear.
“Well. It is the announced concentration of antithesis. This is the real map.” Some yellow turned to orange, a few more red dots appeared, but overall not too much worse. Then I looked up.
“Fuck…” I whimpered out.
The tower. The whole fucking tower. It was a deep crimson from its base to the top. It was one giant hive.
“An appropriate reaction.” The head sighed and nodded along. “When the tower was built it was built with the antithesis in mind. The idea was to make it as strong as possible with as many emergency supplies and water sources we could cram in so that if the antithesis overran the area it could turn into a massive vault.”
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He zoomed in on the tower.
“The problem is it was overrun through the sewage system we had yet to properly secure. Once the first few floors were lost the volume of antithesis prevented us from sealing the building so it was fully overrun. Without Samurai support the local forces stood no chance and retreated. The antithesis then used the emergency supplies, gardens, parks, water sources, and more to grow out of control.”
He turned to face me.
“Due to how reinforced the building was it was deemed to not be worth bringing the tower down with how much ordinance it would require. On top of that all resources had been diverted to stopping the wave to keep it away from the three secure towers and D.C.”
I rubbed my chin looking it over. “What kept you from assaulting it afterward?” I asked. Although looking at the star studded boys in the room trying to look everywhere but at me I had a bad feeling.
“By the time we pushed the antithesis back to the tower and established a line it was determined by the military and government officials that the area would be quarantined and designated for use by the military. Officially it was due to the military struggling to deal with the threat without Samurai support.”
“Unofficially?”
“Unofficially the military and arms manufacturers wanted to keep the tower and the nearby area infested. This was so there would be a known local area where they could test their new weapons without the risk of the area seceding. Any new weapons we designed or obtained Samurai tech were taken to this area and tested.”
He zoomed out and motioned to the line where all the antithesis colors stopped.
“The containment line has been continuously reinforced and given the best tech we can develop, and even a number of Samurai tech we could afford to spare. It has always easily held off any incursion attempts from the tower. Due to this and the tests along with the lack of open growth we thought the area was being properly culled.”
He tapped his tab and a new picture popped up on screen of the tower with a few strange branches growing out of the top.
“Then we spotted these growing out of the tower. Due to us believing there was not enough biomass in the tower we assumed they would not use it to grow more than a basic hive.”
The picture then changed to what looked like an alien world. Glowing pods, vines, antithesis crawling everywhere, and more. When I looked close I could kinda make out the human stuff it had grown around, on, and through.
“This was taken shortly after. We managed to get some drones inside and discovered a worse case scenario. The entire building is now home to one of the largest hives on record. This hive extends from the subterranean areas to the top of the tower uninterrupted. We believe the only reason it has not posed any more of a threat than it has so far is due to the culling we do in the surrounding area and the fact it is low on biomass. It appears that it was so focused on growth in such a safe and well stocked place it didn’t have much left over to build more antithesis besides enough to make new hives around it.”
I just stared at the tower of red. Even Byllona was silent as we tried to understand the magnitude of what had been on my doorstep for years.
“The tower itself was so reinforced that we are unable to do any real damage to the hive within using conventional weapons. Due to the hives surrounding it and the sheer volume within we deemed frontal assaults as even less viable. If we knock it over then we will wind up with a whole line of highly dense antithesis hives that will be dispersed into areas under our control so that option is denied. Bringing in outside Samurai was denied due to the panic and issues it would bring both politically and to our military the news of such a hive would cause.”
I just shook my head. “So you just… let it sit?” I asked in pure shock.
“We ran harassment campaigns and tested new equipment on it, then any new equipment that was deemed effective was used to continue to harass the tower to try and keep it contained. We also target any outgrowths that appear in the tower both to stop its growth and to prevent the public from getting hints.”
I could only rub my face in annoyance. “So why drag me in so fast?”
The suits looked me in the eye at long last.
“You are the first that has the catalogues that are fit to handle it. You have conventional weapons and gear that is good for clearing out entrenched positions and securing lines. All the others use high explosives that risk the tower’s structural integrity or just pass out guns.”
The family head spoke up. “And you seem like your gear could help reinforce the line.”
I took a deep breath and leaned back in my seat. Nothing was ever easy, was it?
