Cataphractoi

If you'd like to read more, please consider checking out my other works!

A Magical Journey Through Outer Space (Space ships and aliens- but with magic!)

Mistworld (Exploring a world stitched together by isekai!)

Slaying Aliens and Infringing Copyrights (A Stray Cat Strut Fanfiction)

The cable plant was reasonably close to town and the Antithesis in my way were barely a speed bump, so it didn’t take long before I had the building in sight- just barely, though. I stopped the moment I could see it at all, deciding to put together a plan before going in. A road overgrown with grass and bushes led to the factory, any pavement that used to be there reclaimed by nature already. Trees lined the road, but the underbrush was thin enough that nothing was going to be sneaking up on me here.

“What’ve we got, Juny?” I asked, counting on her sensors to give me a full picture.

“The only models above ten are a pair of Thirteens! Other than those, there are Model Tens, which are of course harmless, in addition to a few dozen Model Threes with a handful of Fives and Sixes mixed in,” Juny reported promptly. I hummed a bit as I thought it over.

“Thirteens are a bit of a pain. I definitely don’t want to fight them up close. But this time we’re above ground, so let’s go nuts with the explosives.” I took a moment to consider the width of the road. Model Thirteens were small enough that any mines I planted weren’t guaranteed to catch them in the blast radius. “Two of them, right? Then let’s go for half a dozen bombs- some kind of shaped charge that fires a penetrator round directly in front when it’s triggered.”

…wait. A cannon. I just described a cannon.

“There are several options that should be capable of killing a Model Thirteen! Would you like the details?” Juny queried, but even anything that weakened them would be good enough in my book.

“Whatever is cheapest will do. When we get closer, line them up along the road between me and the factory and use one on each Model Thirteen body. Throw in some cheap anti-personnel mines for the Threes and a few cheap combat drones just to watch my back,” I listed out as I started walking again, wanting to be close enough when the shooting started that the Thirteens would be compelled to act.

When I thought I was close enough I called in the heavy machinegun, tripod and all. I could technically fire it from the hip now, but it would be easier to aim and handle like this. Deciding that was her cue, Juny began bringing in the things I asked her for. Six remotely detonated tubes hidden in the bushes and four cylinders spaced out along the road came first.

“Those seem a bit conspicuous for traps,” I pointed out as I observed the cylinders. They weren’t the type of container equipment usually came in; each had numerous circles dotting their convex tops.

“That’s because they haven’t deployed yet,” Juny clarified as she activated them. I realized quickly that they weren’t traps, they were dispensers. The circles turned out to be the tips of the items contained inside, which the dispensers began to spit out. Each of them launched into the air in a slightly different trajectory and then seemed to unravel in midair, landing on the ground on eight legs. They were like little mechanical spiders. As the first batch hid themselves among the grass, even more followed and spread themselves around.

“Spider mines, huh?” I commented, grasping the idea pretty quickly. They would grab onto whatever passed and then explode right against the victim’s body to ensure maximum damage. Nasty little things that would probably be declared a war crime if anyone tried to invent a commercial model for use against people. Good thing Antithesis are aggressive shallots and not people.

Next came the drones. I glanced at them and realized Juny had bought her typical Eyebots yet again, but this time they were wearing masks. Specifically, each had one of the boss masks from Majora’s Mask: Odolwa, Goht, Gyorg, and Twinmold. I was wondering how long it would take her to start playing into the name…even though it didn’t match the genre of my typical gear. That was her solution, apparently.

“Not even going to comment. Send them ahead to kick the hive and then station them behind me to prevent any flanking attempts,” I instructed, focusing on the mission.

“Charge!” Juny ordered gleefully, even though I was fairly certain that wasn’t how the drones worked. They zipped off in a hurry towards the doors of the factory, which had been taken off their hinges by Antithesis or the passage of time. These four drones only carried lasers, which they unleashed through the open entrance while buzzing about and generally making themselves difficult targets.

It took a few moments before there was a reaction, but then Model Threes started pouring out the doors and the drones beat a hasty retreat. Normally that would have been my cue to start shooting, but I kind of wanted to see those spider mines in action. As the Model Threes charged down the road, the little self-propelled landmines would jump into their paths or snag them on the way past. Once they had a grip on the Threes they wrapped themselves around their target and detonated.

Tiny as they were, the effects were limited. Maybe tennis ball-sized area per mine. But there were a lot of them; every Model Three might have been able to survive a few, but blow enough holes out of their bodies and they were going down. And I wasn’t dealing with the endless hordes I was used to. This was a minor incursion; the mines were pretty much taking care of the Threes without my input.

“This…feels too easy,” I said to Juny as I stood, dismissing the heavy machinegun. I’d realized it was overkill for the mission at hand. I called in my assault rifle instead and ignored the Model Threes, picking off the Fives and Sixes as they emerged from the factory. I was wary of the Model Thirteens, still, but the killing field I’d prepared really did all the work for me. While my traps didn’t kill every Thirteen in a single shot, the damage was enough that I finished them off with my rifle.

“It’s a good opportunity to learn what a typical incursion is like! At least, a small one. Your only experience was an outlier in many ways,” Juny replied as I continued putting down the unfortunate Antithesis in my way.

“How so?” I asked. I put a three-round burst into a Model Six, and it dropped bonelessly to the ground.

“An incursion of the size of Boone’s would typically have initiated at least two to three Vanguards, assuming none were already present. Additionally, most incursions of that size attract the attention of a more experienced Vanguards that can provide guidance and deal with threats that outclass the freshly initialized,” the AI explained.

“So what went wrong?” I lowered my rifle. No more of the bigger models were appearing and the minefield was dealing with the Threes well enough. Instead I focused on the motion tracker in my suit, watching for any ambushes.

“That would be difficult to classify. It’s possible more Vanguards were created but that they died before they were noticed. Boone’s isolation and other events elsewhere contributed to the lack of reinforcements; prior to the siege there was no need for a local Vanguard, and the more experienced Vanguards in other cities were either unwilling to travel, otherwise occupied, or not in contact with the family, according to their records,” Juny elaborated as the ‘fight’ petered out.

The bit about other Samurai having been present made a certain paranoid part of my mind light up. Could those missing Samurai have been encountered by corporate loyalists before they had a chance to be noticed? I didn’t have any reason to think there were corporate forces present at the beginning of the siege though, so it seemed unlikely. I dismissed the idea; there was no need to jump at shadows.

“And with fewer Samurai fighting to protect a town from an incursion proportionate to its size, I ended up in heavier fighting than normal for a newbie?” I asked as I started walking towards the factory, watching carefully for survivors that might be too crippled to move but still dangerous.

“Exactly! You were asked to handle tasks a more senior Samurai would normally have dealt with, allowing you to build points more safely by focusing on supporting the main defense line,” Juny added as she followed behind me.

“And this is…more of a one-newbie job, then,” I concluded, walking into the factory at last. I’d expected a room full of heavy machinery, but mostly it was just full of ugly green-black plants. There were a few machines of relatively small size half-buried under roots and vines, but nothing I typically associated with a factory. The cable plant was essentially one big room, though, which was the only thing that really fit my preexisting image.

“A single local Vanguard, even freshly initialized, could likely have cleared this hive and then moved onto the quarry once they were done,” confirmed Juny. That certainly explained why this felt too easy…and probably addressed the question of why no one else had been available to sortie. It wasn’t worth the time for established Samurai, and someone was likely to pop up here if the place was left to its own devices anyway.

I really wasn’t earning a ton of points here, but I was happy to help if it kept the casualties down. More saliently, I was in a slightly different position than most Samurai due to the people Alana brought to the table. We were getting paid not just in points but also like mercenaries employed by the Family, charging rates a Samurai would usually scoff at because we didn’t actually need the money for ourselves, only to ease the financial burden of maintaining so many personnel.

Basically, we were building field experience, goodwill from the Family, and points while being subsidized for it. That sweetened the deal for us a lot when compared to the usual lone wolf Samurai who only needed the points and probably took advantage of learning modules and the like to eliminate the need for training and personal experience.

“Well, let’s get it over with. Give the cheapest way to turn this factory into ash and slag with no surviving Antithesis, please!” I requested as I looked the interior over. There were no columns or anything to focus on, and I wasn’t sure the building was even inflammable, so extreme heat seemed like a good option.

“Certainly! Placing Delayed Star charges at these locations should guarantee complete destruction of all Antithesis biomatter,” Juny informed me as she highlighted several spots on me HUD. Due to the size of the building it looked like it was going to take six charges, which was going to be a bit steeper than I liked, but the points I’d gotten from the battle would pay for it.

I went ahead and got the bombs set up before retreating to my previous position. In my hand was a detonator, mostly for the flair. There was no reason I couldn’t do this digitally or leave it to Juny, but I wanted to get some enjoyment out of this mission. Looking straight at the factory, I lifted my hand and flipped the cover on the device, then thumbed the button.

My visor darkened to protect my eyes from the flash. Wind buffeted me as superheated plasma consumed the derelict factory, warming the air by proxy. The building puffed up for a moment before melting, the roof and walls not so much collapsing as dissolving into a rapidly-cooling pile of slag.

“Huh. That was neat. Welp, let’s get back to the town and see how my time compared to Alana’s.”