When we climbed out of the lower level everything was fairly quiet. There was the occasional burst of gunfire from the surrounding tunnels, but it seemed like they had finished clearing up the remainiance from the main chamber.

  Hoppy seemed to be the first to notice our arrival, because she came sprinting over, skidding to a stop a few feet away. She had apparently upgraded her gear sihe st time I’d seen her, as she was wearing some sort of enclosed, pink, power armor. Her helmet still had the same swept-back rabbit ear look as the previous model, which made me wonder if it was a feature from her catalogs, or if it was a design choice.

  “You look like shit,” she muttered, before smming her hands over the mouth of her helmet.

  “We do! Thanks for notig,” I mumbled sarcastically. “Trust me, I didn’t pn to spend almost two days fighting through a tunnel system only to end my adventure by bathing in nanites and pnt goo, but that’s what happened.” I sloughed off another bit of half-dried goop as we slowly headed back towards the Kodiaks, and the rest of the samurai.

  “How are things going up here?” Humboldt asked, in a desperate attempt to stop my grumbling.

  “Good! We mao up the remaining antithesis up here. Grey ordered up a few crates of greo help clear up all the dead bodies, and Spooky is direg the bears to clear up the remains, and sweep the nearby tunnels,” Hoppy said, as she bounced backwards while talking to us.

  “What about the big fel? We’re not going to melt him too, are we?” Magpie asked, gng at the titanic corpse of the Forty-Four.

  “I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Grey. She kind of took trol of the situation while you were downstairs, and she’s been trying to get ahold of The Family to update them ouation,” Hoppy reported, as she did a little spinning hop so she could walk fain. “Apparently it’s a little difficult to have a discussion through a squirrel.”

  “I am aware,” I grumbled. As we stepped up to the Kodiaks everyouro look at us. “We haven’t had a ce to off yet, thanks for asking!” I snapped.

  “Alright. Time to get you , Ms. ky Pants,” Humboldt said, pushiween the vehicles.

  “I’m not ky!” I pined.

  I could see the disapproving gnce, even through Humboldt’s visor. “The only time I’ve seen you NOT ky is when you’re with Jane and the kids. You’re extra ornery right now,” she said.

  I barely stopped myself from saying ‘Your face is extra ornery’ before I realized how i sounded. “Fine… Nyx how do I get this shit off?” I asked.

  The easiest way would be an ultrasonic ing, but I would not suggest that while you’re still wearing the armor. It would probably jellify your bohe best way would be to use a deination shower to scrub off the remains.

  “Fuck it, let’s do that,” I said, which caused Humboldt to look at me strangely.

  “It’s se to watch you talk to your AI without a bot around, you sound like a crazy person,” she said. “You really should learn to subvocalize.”

  “Why would I go to all that effort? Let people think I’m crazy! What the fuck do I care?” I replied. “Nyx: shower!”

  The small enclosure just appeared in front of me, allowio step directly in ahe annoying residue slowly get washed away.

  “You remind me so much of a crotchety old person when you get this way, I ’t believe you’re youhan I am,” Humboldt muttered.

  “I ’t hear you! The shower’s too loud!” I shouted at her as my irritation slowly drained away with the remains of the hive.

  “And now you’re ag like you’re five,” she tinued.

  I popped out of the shower, and kicked the very final bit of slurry off my boots. “I couldn’t help it. Even though my armor is enviroally sealed I could practically feel it on my skin. I have no idea how Dreamer mao ha. Want to use it ?” I asked, stepping aside.

  Humboldt slipped right into the stall. “She has some sort of impnt that subtly ges her perception of reality to make it more manageable. I doubt it would work for you; you hate everything.”

  “I do not!” I protested. “Just most things!”

  She stepped out of the shower, noticeably er, and shot me a look. “You know, you're not making a great case for yourself.”

  “It’s my job to kill aliens, and provide for my family. If someone doesn’t want to deal with me, that’s their problem,” I said with a shrug.

  Humboldt sighed. “We should probably go let Dreamer and Magpie know you’ve set up a shower here, then che with Grey,” she said as she headed towards the back of the Kodiaks. “Keep you busy enough to stop yoing full grump again.”

  “Yeah, good luck with that,” I snorted.

  As we stepped out back Dreamer’s eyes immediately lit up. “Shower time? Did you get my favorite body wash?” she asked as she rushed up to me.

  “That’s… umm… up to you,” I mao stutter as she put her face just inches from my helmet.

  “Okay! Thanks anyways!” she replied as she immediately disappeared towards the shower area. A sed ter Magpie followed, grumbling about not having a rubber duck.

  I stared at the pair as they disappeared before turning back towards Humboldt. “I’d rather be grumpy than whatever Dreamer is,” I told her.

  “It’s called joy,” she replied, “You should try it sometime.”

  “Smartass,” I mumbled as we wandered around looking frey. We found her in the back of one of the Kodiaks with Bright-Eyes, talking to a squirrel.

  “A couple hours? That’s it? I thought the backup team would take a day or two to arrive,” Grey said.

  “The East Coast teams are still further out, but we started putting together teams to both sweep the tunnels and the polymer out even before you were ready to go,” the squirrel replied. “If you’ve really killed a Forty-Four, and cleared out the main hive, we’d like to get the support teams in there ASAP.”

  “Is that fug wise? We still don’t know what’s running around iunnels,” I blurted out.

  “Who’s that?” the squirrel asked, as it turned my dire and stared bnkly.

  “Teddy, one of the samurai from Calgary,” Grey expined, shooting me a disappointed look. “She’s not muanners.”

  “Manners don’t get shit done when your oppo is trying to eat you,” I snorted.

  “As long as the worst of the antithesis are cleared out, then the support teams will be fihey’re all led by samurai from the local chapters. They may not have prepared to deal with the Forty-Four, but they all deal with the smaller models left ihe tunnel system,” the voice said.

  “And what about those of us that actually dealt with all this shit,” I asked. “And those who died here?” I tinued quietly.

  “We were of course saddeo hear that so many of our samurai brethren died during the battle,” the squirrel said, with a voice that was devoid of emotion. “So we’d like their bodies returo the proper chapters so they be returo their loved ones, and we pn to set up memorials for the lost.” There was a momentary pause, then the voice tinued. “As for the samurai on site, we’d like you to stay at least until the support teams arrive, but we also know we ’t order you to do anything, so it’s up to you.”

  I shot a questioning g Humboldt, who nodded slightly.

  “Fine,” I finally agreed.

  “Thank you,” the voice said, still pletely deadpan. “Now if you’ll excuse us, I have some Family busio discuss with Grey Goo.”

  “Whatever…” I grumbled, before nodding trey and stepping out of the vehicle.

  Bright followed Humboldt and I out, apparently giving Grey some privacy. “Who the fuck was that?” I asked, leaning closer to her. “Didn’t sound like they gave a fuck about what happened here.”

  She shrugged, unfortably. “I don’t know. It’s someone from the , that’s all I know. They’re not even using a squirrel on their side, just ected directly to my tech. I suspect that it’s one of the founders, one of the Css Fives, based on how Grey was talking.”

  “Doesn’t make their tone aer. Should show a little more respect for the dead,” I muttered.

  “The entire discussion was in that tone,” Bright said. “I don’t know if that was because their uniethod strips emotion out, or…”

  “They’re just aionless son of a bitch,” I finished. She nodded. “Well fuck ‘em!” I suddenly decred. “I’m going to spend the couple hours sending bears to scout around, but if they don’t find anything I’m out of here the instant the support teams arrive. I doubt there’s another major hive, we would have been swarmed if that was the case, and I don’t want to spend the few days huntiovers; I’d rather make sure Brood and the et home than babysit a bunch of te fug arrivals.” I paused and looked at the others. “Let the others know that if they want a ride, let me know. I’m tired of this shithole.”

  The other two women nodded in response.