Point Conservation has about as many possible answers as there are Sams, but you generally can sort them into a few categories. You have those who don't even bother, or spend them as soon as they get them. You have Sams who will sit on them until they either have to buy something hyper specific, or have already put them up against a large purchase. And finally you have the group that will point pinch as much as possible by buying parts and materials, then assemble and maintain it themselves.
--Spark 'GroundWire' Graham in a guest appearance on InqueAbyss' livestream, 2057
Quinn and Elliot cleared floors one by one, starting from the cargo elevator and moving first to the warehouse and then to the cramped corridors of the office spaces. Quinn was thankful that the uninspired standardized floors at least meant the floorplan was easy to navigate. They ran into quite a few packs of antithesis, most combing the corridors much like they were. A couple of large groupings in the warehouses too, along with piles of corpses that Quinn was getting concerningly more used to.
On the fourth floor, they ran into something Quinn didn’t think existed - instead of the forklift in the warehouse, this floor had another loader mech.
“Hey Irys, you mentioned the nanite swarm can recharge, could it… steal some of the parts from this mech to improve cassie? Maybe steal some of the internals to reinforce things.. Ooh! Could we attach a second set of arms?”
Irys was quick to provide an analysis “We could definitely make some adjustments to Cassie’s internals now the swarm has recharged somewhat, but you’d have to direct the engineering AI to do an analysis, though I suspect it will find a number of improvements - cassie is not exactly well designed”
Quinn scrunched up her nose in defiance “Hey.. take that back!”
“Its unfortunately valid, but we will bring her to tip top shape in no time. The arms however are not feasible, you’ll need to acquire a more direct mental piloting link to be able to control them.”
She sighed “Fine, though could we maybe use some of the moving bits to give cassie a front that opens?”
“That is within your power, I’ll get the engineering AI on it. Get a little closer to the other loader, but keep about five feet of distance."
She directed Cassie forward a little, then took a step back when Irys warned her of being too close. The purple nanite tentacle snaked over to the other loader and dived inside, and soon various gears and other parts were being deposited on the ground in front. Part way through one of the loaders mechs suddenly buckled and it fell onto its side with a load crash. Quinn would have leapt back in shock if she'd been on foot, putting a hand to her chest to calm herself. The nanites didn't seem to care, and after extracting a few more components from the tipped over machine it started moving them into Cassie, occasionally dropping broken parts outside. Finally it dipped inside, and the purple nanites appeared to form a hinge on cassies left side, then traced a rough rectangle around the edge.
“Can we give it a brief try?”
“Of course darling.”
With a slight hiss cassie’s front peeled open, and Elliot looked over and gave her a thumbs up with a crooked grin. A few seconds later it closed back over Quinn, and they set off again.
Two floors and four small packs later, they were working through the office maze side when Elliot once again gave the raised hand signal for a stop.
“I hear movement, it doesn’t sound like the other antithesis we’ve run into, so its something different. Doesn’t sound large though.”
“Do you want me to take the lead?”
He considered this. “Probably a good idea till we get closer.”
They crept closer, Elliot as silent as a ghost and Quinn just trying to move slowly enough to be only loud instead of a racket.
They drew closer, and Elliot motioned to a large meeting room door, blinds closed on the inside. Quinn moved up and shoved the door with Cassie's free hand. The door was apparently locked, and the lock proved to be stronger than the door hinges, as the hinges immediately broke and the door crashed to the floor. A pair of high pitched screams rang out from inside. Elliot gave Quinn an amused look, before working towards the door. He poked his head in, and then immediately retracted it as an oversized stapler sailed past and clattered against the wall.
“Fucking hell, WE’RE NOT ANTITHESIS.” was Elliot’s yelled retort.
A few seconds later, a scared sounding female voice responded “SORRY.”
“Just come out where we can all talk, okay?”
There was some scraping from inside as a makeshift barrier of furniture was moved, and then two figures emerged from the room. One a taller brunette woman looking quite pale, clutching a makeshift bandage stained with red around her left arm; the other a shorter black haired desi woman looking quite sheepish. The shorter woman let out a gasp as she locked eyes on Elliot and cassie “Holy Shit, are you a Sam?”
Elliot grinned and nodded his head at the mech “She is, I’m not, at least not yet! Maybe I’ll get bonus points for helping her though - I’m Elliot..”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“I’m Maya, the quiet one is Amelie. Is the incursion over?”
“Quinn, and not by a long shot.” Quinn spoke up from within cassie “Are you alright, Amelie?”
The tall woman nodded, “It’s no longer bleeding, I’ll be okay for now.”
“Good, but we need to get you two to safety. Where’s the nearest shelter?”
“The Basement” Irys supplied. “North side, opposite the lift. There may well be a concentration of antithesis there however, as subterranean transport of biomass is typically easier for them than by air or similar.”
“Shit” she swore, quietly enough to hopefully not be audible to the outside “We can’t take them there.”
“Unfortunately darling, you don’t really have much of an option. We were on track to clear the building in time, so I didn’t see the need to worry you, but taking a detour will likely allow the antithesis here to either evacuate their gathered biomass, or worse, start a hive.”
Quinn was incensed “Are you fucking serious, Irys. Why did you not bring this up before?”
“Because you had enough stressors and I didn’t want to unnecessarily add new ones with no positive reason to do so, especially when we were previously on target to deal with the threat as is.”
“Everything alright in there Quinn?” Elliot poked his head into her field of view, and she realized with dread she hadn’t exactly been quiet for that last outburst.
“Its fine, Irys says we need to head towards the basement. Can you pop the hood Irys?”
When she was open to the air, she summoned up the courage to ask them the difficult follow up question.
“Listen, Amelie, Maya. My AI has let me know that things are getting more serious, and Elliot and I need to head to the basement immediately. There’s a shelter there, but there might be a lot of antithesis down there. You can either come with us, or stay here. I don’t know which will be safer.”
Amelie glanced at Maya “I don’t know.. maybe we should.
Maya interjected “We'll come with you. Better with a sam than cowering in a meeting room hoping we get lucky.” her tone softened a bit as she noticed Amelie wasn't quite on board. “Look, we barely survived one of the dog ones on its own, and it got you bad even after we surprised it. At least with these two someone has a real weapon.”
Amelie nodded meekly “Okay.”
The four set off towards the cargo elevator, with Quinn once again in the lead. The floor was quiet other than them, and Elliot was soon striking up a conversation.
“So, you two managed to take out an antithesis? I gotta hear that story/”
Maya grinned “We were in that meeting room when one of those dog ones started snuffling around. This one” She nudged Amelie with an elbow “Started throwing shit at it and told me to run. I said fuck that and clubbed the thing with a chair until it stopped moving.” She chuckled “Apparently I’m not sam material sadly. But then we bandaged her wound she got when it jumped on her, barricaded the door and hunkered down until you came.”
“Damn, quite the story” Elliot mused “What were you two doing in there anyway? Didn’t you see the incursion warnings?”
Amelie surprisingly piped up “We were.. In a quite heated discussion about whose team a bug belonged to. We kind of didn’t notice until the screaming started”
How do you… Quinn shook her head. She could figure it out later. They had just about reached the cargo elevator.
The four of them stepped on. Quinn took a look at some of the crates present.
“We should make a makeshift barricade maybe? At least to give you two something to hide behind.”
Elliot nodded, and the four of them shifted the boxes into a makeshift wall. Quinn took a deep breath, then signalled Elliot to hit the button for the basement. The elevator crept past the second floor, then the first, and finally the basement started to come into view.
What terrified Quinn wasn't the veritable horde of antithesis she was looking at, nor was it the giant worm that appeared to have burrowed through the floor, reaching over to grab and swallow piles of corpses. No, it was the six legged, bear looking thing the size of a car standing in the middle. Just to make things worse, the elevator decided that this was the time to come to a stop with a loud clank, just in time to swing the heads of a large number of those antithesis in her direction.
Elliot's command cut through her moment of hesitation. “Push Forward! You're a sitting duck in the elevator.”
Thunk Thunk. Thomp Thomp Thomp Thomp. The flak guns on the shoulders opened in linked volleys up as she squeezed the trigger on the main gun and that hail of flesh rending flechettes rained down on the room of aliens. She pushed forwards, hands moving furiously to viciously kick a model-3 near the entrance of the elevator while keeping her gun sweeping across the expanse of the room. She heard the rapid fire of Elliot from somewhere behind her as she moved further in, trying to give herself some room to maneuver while trying to give herself enough breathing room to focus on the primary threat.
Speaking of, the bear thing was at this point barreling its way towards her with pant-shitting speed. Trusting Elliot and her flak cannons to protect her from the smaller fry, she twisted round and started pumping round after round into the charging giant. Bark like hide and green flesh were sheared off, but it kept coming into the withering hail of fire. A moment too late, she realised it wasn't going to go down before it reached her.
She did her best approximation of a dodge, but unfortunately it was not enough. Cassie took a brutal blow to one shoulder, sending the mech reeling and causing Quinn to bash her head against the chair behind her, leaving her mind suddenly dropped into a thick murk. She blinked and tried to stand up, failing as she tugged against the straps keeping her attached to the pilot's seat. One flak gun still fired with a Thunk, the absence of its rhythmic partner somehow standing out to her from within the fog.
Slowly, the world came back into focus. Cassie, and by extension she, were lying on their side. The flak gun had stopped firing now, and she couldn't hear any other shots going off. Had they won?
“Hey.. is everyone alright?” Her words sounded a little funny, which was weird.
“We're fine, the antithesis are all dead. Are you okay?” The sound of Elliot's voice flooded Quinn with a wave of relief, and a few moments later she saw him enter her field of view. She could have sworn his shirt was all white before, but now there was a cool red streak going diagonally from one shoulder to hip, how had she not noticed that?
“Darling, I think you're suffering from some moderate head trauma. I'd suggest a quick Nano Regenerative Suite to ensure there isnt any serious injury.”
“Hey, Irys, if you can hear me, can you pop the front?”
The front of the mech pushed against the floor, briefly lifting the chassis up before the increased clearance allowed the door to open fully, rocking the body back down suddenly.
“Ah shit, I see a head wound. What do we need for that?”
Quinn was struggling to focus, but she pulled together a few begrudgingly cooperating brain cells. “Nano Regenerative Suite, Irys…” She started, before her thoughts decided they wanted a lunch break.
“Don't worry, I got it.” Elliot gently responded, and a small white box dropped into his hand.
Quinn's brain cells, in the middle of their siesta, looked up as one at the sight, and together produced a single resounding thought.
“Wait, what?”
