It’s easy to track the antithesis on the surface. The samurai satellite networks have enough fidelity to track individual Sevens, and with hundreds of additional sensor modes, even the stealth models would be hard pressed to sneak through undetected. Underwater though? That’s something else entirely. It’s almost like all the aquatic antithesis models are optimized to go unnoticed. Sonar is still the most consistent way to track, because many other search methods are useless. Thermal? The aquatic antithesis have the same body temps as the surrounding water. Density? It’s surprising how many models disappear into the background of those scans. It’s so hard to get a good read on their movements, we just don’t know what kind of monsters are really out there, waiting for us.

  -Aquatic Antithesis, Study done by Cascadian Central Research Institute 2053

  —

  I honestly thought the antithesis would take a little bit of time to get past the sonic defenses. I could feel the vibrations in my bones, so how could the creatures get through so easily?

  I’d forgotten how single-minded the antithesis were. When the first wave hit the wall, they were maimed enough that they practically fell apart as soon as they hit the wall.

  While Skyler spread her drones out to cover a wide area, I engaged my aqua pack to start my patrol.

  For several minutes I thought the defenses might hold--all the antithesis were dying before they could even begin to damage the wall. But then the bulk of the swarm hit. The antithesis were so thick that more than ninety percent died, absorbing the sonic damage and falling away like ablative armor, allowing thousands of antithesis to make it through alive.

  Hundreds of antithesis slammed into the thick chain wall, clawing and gnawing at the metal links. The smaller models, thankfully, couldn’t do much and were easily dispatched between the Skyler’s torpedoes and my darts.

  Even though the antithesis couldn’t seem to do much damage, there were a lot of them. For every antithesis we killed, it seemed like two took its place. Soon, the entire wall crawled with antithesis, hundreds of bodies pressing against the chain wall. It didn’t look like it would give in anytime soon, but it still wasn’t looking good.

  As I was busy shooting monowire darts through the wall, creating small death zones to relieve the pressure, suddenly the entire wall bowed inward. I could hear metal screech, struggling under the strain.

  I shot down the wall, looking for the source of the disturbance. After about thirty feet, a leviathan emerged out of the darkness. It looked kind of like a massive eel covered in huge chitinous plates and so long I couldn’t see the other end. The creature thrashed in the murky water, pressing hard against the chain fence. Half a dozen torpedoes smashed against the creature’s face. The eel reared back, the armor on its head cracked but still intact. It swam back, partially disappearing into the gloom, before turning back, preparing for another charge.

  “How are we supposed to stop that?” I yelled.

  “I don’t know! I hit it with a full concussive barrage!” Skyler yelled back. “If I use anything else, it might damage the wall!”

  I growled and pulled out Rending Wave, preparing to receive the creature’s charge once it broke through the barrier.

  {Arty: Message from Limelight. Brace yourselves.}

  “What the hell does…” I started before a blinding lance of light cut through the gloom. The light cut through hundreds of antithesis, incinerating them instantly, and also bisecting the eel. I stared in awe as the two halves of the monster slowly sank, slowly twitching. After a few seconds, part of the swarm broke away and converged upon the great beast and started consuming it.

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  {Athy: Message from Limelight. Target eliminated, go about your business.}

  {Skyler: Please pass on our regards to Limelight, }

  {Athy: Can do!}

  I blinked rapidly, trying to clear the spots out of my vision. It was only after my vision cleared did I realize the leviathan had breached the fence. Not massively, it hadn’t broken enough links to fit through itself, but it was enough for the smaller models. The only reason we hadn’t been swarmed is most of the antithesis had turned to devour the massive eel.

  Pushing back from the fence, I sped towards Skyler. “Breach!”

  “I see it, putting Arty on autofire to keep the hole clear!” she yelled back.

  The little drone started spitting its mini munitions out at a regular intervals, smashing into the wall around the breach. The smaller antithesis were immediately pulverized, preventing them from coming through.

  “Artymis, can we close that breach somehow?”

  {Arty: You can buy a catalog which would allow you to create a temporary patch, but straight up fixing it is beyond your reach. The chain links are made out of a Class II material that has a built-in auto repair function. They will mend themselves over time, but they need to pull microparticles out of the water to do so.}

  {Athy: The links are also under an enormous amount of stress right now, and you’d need a device capable of popping the broken links back into place, and keeping the area clear while you perform the repairs. That’s not exactly easy given the current situation.}

  I stared at the small gap in the fence, as swarms of smaller antithesis attempted to squeeze through the gap, only to be pulverized by the constant bombardment of torpedoes.

  “Noted,” I muttered.

  “It’s not ideal, but the breach is small and we’ve got it under control for now. Let’s leave it for now, and concentrate on preventing the antithesis from breaching elsewhere,” Skyler yelled over the sound of the explosions.

  “Makes sense,” I yelled back. “I’m going to check the rest of the wall. Call me if you need me.”

  Skyler flashed a quick thumbs up before I shot off again.

  “Arty, how is Ghost-Light holding up?”

  {Arty: She’s quite agile, and is clearing her section of the wall very efficiently. You don’t have to worry about her.}

  “Good to know.”

  I sped along the fence, firing monowire darts through the chain whenever I could, looking for trouble. More than once I caught sight of the remains of other leviathans, some of which dwarfed the one killed earlier. “Limelight’s been busier than I realized,” I muttered.

  {Arty: Indeed. There have been quite a few models in the twenty to thirty range. Without the Starchaser, the wall would have been breached multiple times over the last few minutes. I’m actually impressed by both their accuracy and firepower.}

  “I’ll take that as a good thing,” I muttered.

  I shot back and forth cleaning off the smaller models as quickly as possible. Their numbers seemed nearly unlimited, and every time I fired a bolt to clear part of the wall, the antithesis would swarm the area and fill that space again within moments. It was frustrating, but at least I could tell myself that I was making progress.

  The murky water blocked most of the light from above, so as I shot back and forth clearing as fast as I could, I kind of lost track of time. At some point I even started to delude myself into believing we might manage to get through this entire thing without an issue. Which, of course, was when things started going wrong.

  While I was clearing a section, the entire wall shot forward, nearly clipping me. This wasn’t like the other times one of the leviathans smashed into the wall, this was much worse. Before I could zip towards the source, dozens of laser lances simultaneously pierced the murky water.

  Limelight’s lasers lit up a true titan, ten times larger than what had hit the wall earlier. The beast had a long, razor-sharp nose like a marlin, which had to be twenty feet long. This spear-like appendage had cut right through several links, but the majority of the wall had just barely held, keeping the creature back.

  While the behemoth thrashed, trying to tear its weapon loose, the Starchaser fired again and again. It took nearly a minute of constant fire to bring the beast down. When it finally lay still, the other antithesis rushed towards the rupture it had created.

  Engaging my pack, I shot forward to meet them. The rupture was much larger than the previous break, and the smaller antithesis were just pouring through it.

  When I got close, I could see Skyler was already there, frantically bombarding the break. Her torpedoes were catching most of the antithesis as they poured through, but not all of them. One of the seal form Threes that slipped through, shot towards Skyler, deftly dodging the shots from her aquatic rifle.

  I pushed my pack as hard as I could, whipping out Rending Wave as I went. If Skyler hadn’t been firing at the creature, forcing it to dodge out of the way of her shots, there was a good chance I wouldn’t have been able to intercept it before it took a chunk out of her. Because it was dodging I just managed to slip between the two, slicing the Three in two.

  Skyler gasped. “Thanks for the save, but we have a serious problem.”

  “I know, I saw, how long do you think you can keep that breach covered?”

  “As long as necessary,” Skyler replied. “What are you going to do?”

  “Keep you safe while we try and come up with a plan,” I muttered as I stared at the massive breach. “We better think quick.”

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