"I can't believe my brother was murdered!" said the warrior.

  "Worry not, we shall find the one responsible and bring them to justice! You have my bow!" said the archer.

  "Aye and my axe!" added the berserker.

  "And my sword. It is my duty to bring this evildoer to justice!" chimed in the padin.

  The st of the group nodded sagely. "And your brother," said the necromancer.”

  Common joke in fantasy-forums, 2020s

  From our position, we were pretty safe from any antithesis trying to sneak up on us. The wind blew in our direction, the hedges and bushes gave us ample visual cover, and the sounds and low droning of the AC in the building overshadowed most of our whispered words.

  That said, we didn’t have the perfect view of the pce either. And because of this, I had decided to deal with the xenos in three steps.

  The first step would be retively simple. Zuri and I would both y out some of her traps around the area we had been in before. If anything went off the rails, I wanted a reliable fallback point. And while this one was far from reliable, it was the best we had on such short notice.

  Once that was done, we would both slowly work our way around the west side of the building. The wind blew in that direction, and I wanted to make sure that none of the pheromones would fly over to the rest of the aliens before we were ready to deal with them. The east side was the side we had the least amount of vision over, and while I could certainly smell and hear a lot of things waiting for us there, I couldn’t be sure about their exact position from where we were. Mostly thanks to the same low droning that worked to keep our voices hidden from the xenos.

  The final step of the pn was to strike the remaining aliens on the east, once we’ve cleared the west side up. For that one, I would have to rely on my new necromancy thingy. Stryx had expined to me that any alien killed with my bdes would be taken over. I also had the option to utilise nanite clouds or specialised grenades to distribute my necromancy nanites, but those weren’t all too useful yet. I still needed to kill the aliens first before they got turned, and those grenades and the like didn’t do any damage. So I might as well go through them myself.

  It was very good to know for future use, however.

  I took point, Zuri following close behind me. Trapping our fallback point hadn’t been that much trouble, mostly thanks to how easy to use those little balls were. Within a few moments we were done, and on our way to start the second step of the mission.

  As we walked, I took a moment to get used to the new gear I had on me. The armor was very pleasant to wear and made moving surprisingly easy. So far, most armor I had worn had the tendency to restrict movement quite a bit, so I was gd to see that this one didn’t. My new weapons didn’t weigh much, and left me feeling light and springy. Just the way I preferred.

  Approaching from downwind to keep hidden as long as we could, we slowly made our way closer to the small group of aliens that would be our first targets. They were busy munching on leaves and pnts, and whatever remained of the food some of the patrons left behind.

  Since this was close to the back entrance, the area in front of the door was open and without much in the way of hurdles. Once we had dealt with this group, we would have to walk through the maze of furniture, but at least here we didn’t have to worry about that yet. Should we be fast enough, of course.

  Gncing at Zuri, I waited for her to get ready, two throwing knives already drawn. My new pistol was a nice backup, but it wasn’t exactly quiet, which is why I opted for the knives instead.

  Zuri gave me a small nod, and I immediately sprung into action. With a fsh of silver my two knives cut through the air, myself quickly dashing after them. The weapons arrived first, killing one model Three with a lucky hit to one of the eyes, and wounding another. As the first one died, there was a dull fsh of neon green that vanished almost as quickly as it appeared, and a moment ter the alien slowly started to change.

  I didn’t wait to see what exactly that would look like. Within a moment, I was upon the third model Three, my daggers fshing silver as they bit deep into the aliens neck. It died before it even had time to fall to the ground, another fsh of neon green signaling its turn to join my undead army.

  Zuri was a bit slower, which was to be expected. But with her range advantage, she took out the fourth alien, before it had time to jump me. Her threads cut through it without any issue, and the thing fell apart on the spot.

  Before the st survivor even had time to properly recover from my knife stuck in its eye, I stepped over towards it, embedding my bde into its skull. Another dull fsh of neon green, and it fell to the ground.

  Checking over our surroundings for any more surprises, I found nothing of note. Finally I gnced over to the first alien I had killed. From Stryx words I could infer that the nanites would change it somewhat. If they took over muscles and the like, that would certainly take a moment and might leave some minor marks.

  What I did not expect to see was their skin slowly shifting from dark green to something more grey-ish, with brighter green lines forming on their backs. It had to be deliberate somehow, since all of them showed the same kind of lines, slowly forming into a symbol.

  “Stryx?” I asked, not entirely sure what the purpose of that was.

  This was part of the reason I recommended to you the Mark II Reaper’s Redoubt Control Impnt and the Mark III Hades’ Grasp Nanite System. While neither is the most powerful option avaible, both are retively inexpensive, and offer some minor benefits compared to other options in the same price css.

  In specific, the Mark III Hades’ Grasp Nanite System makes it easier for your allies to differentiate between hostile antithesis and corpses you have taken over, by changing the makeup of their skin and forming a mark. It should help reduce friendly fire incidents and can help prevent a panic. Of course, you can also choose not to change anything. There really isn’t a point to that, however. Normal models will not be able to differentiate between your undead and their brethren, and those that can, do not need to rely on vision to do so.

  That was actually very useful information and something I had to begrudgingly admit, I hadn’t thought about yet. It did make a lot of sense, though, and I was silently thankful that Stryx had thought ahead that far. The st thing I wanted was for folk to be terrified when a horde of undead xenos came to their rescue. Of course, it would take some time before people would learn that those are mine, but once they did, it would hopefully reduce the number of incidents.

  Dismissing those thoughts, I gave Zuri a gnce. She was carefully keeping an eye on our surroundings, which I did approve of. She hadn’t had the points for some proper armor, which I really didn’t like, but at least she was doing her best to not get ambushed.

  Quickly retrieving my weapons, I watched as my undead finally got up, now fully under my control. With a nod to Zuri, I continued our little trip, throwing knives held at the ready for the next group of aliens.

  Things went surprisingly smoothly on the west side of the building. Most of the time we managed to jump the aliens without needing to rely on Zuri’s pheromones at all, and when we did, things were even easier.

  Of course, I took care not to rush too much. We might be in a hurry and in a race against time, until the other xenos noticed us picking off their brethren, but rushing head first into danger would be a far worse outcome. The end result was us picking off three groups on the west side, slowly building up my army, before we finally arrived at the corner of the building leading to the east.

  Even from here I could hear the aliens being restless. They were far more alert, all of them checking their surroundings for anything that might pose a threat to them. They had obviously noticed us killing the others, which meant that any attempt at an ambush were now moot.

  But I had pnned for that.

  Pointing two spots out to Zuri, I let her know where I wanted her pheromones. This close to the aliens I didn’t want to risk speaking, lest we alerted them, so we had to rely on gestures. Typically that wouldn’t be too much of a problem for me, but Zuri hadn’t learned the meaning of them yet, and I didn’t have the time to go over all of them before, so I only showed her the three most important ones.

  She gave me a nod, letting me know that she was ready, and I immediately got up and dashed around the corner. Any attempts at trying to get the jump on them was futile. They were alert, out in the open, and too far away from any cover I might have been able to use. A quick, full frontal assault was the best we could do, especially with my horde of undead behind me.

  Of course, we were still outnumbered. Even if I were to disregard the injuries some of my undead had suffered at the hand of Zuri’s thread, prior to being turned, we were three bodies short of an equal engagement, Zuri and myself already counted in. With the antithesis alert, and my own troops fairly injured, it meant that they had the upper hand.

  But we had the pheromones.

  Just as I took my fourth step towards the closest model Three, Zuri threw one of the pheromone traps towards the area I had indicated. At the same time, I threw the one I had taken with me directly into the mass of aliens in front of me. With a deliberately wide arc, I hurled my throwing knives towards two of the Threes on the left, closest to where Zuri was. None were aimed to kill, but they would be additional distractions until the pheromone balls nded.

  I had thought about just shooting them. And I might have been able to get away with it, but there were reasons I opted not to. Despite this being a full frontal engagement, we were still trying to keep somewhat covert. The aliens close by had noticed us, but so far, we had deliberately not made much of a commotion. We were already outnumbered, if any more aliens decided to join this lot, we could quickly end in a world of trouble. And gunshots would certainly be sufficient to invite even more of them to come investigate.

  I arrived at the first alien, jumping over it with speed, cutting open its right backside as I passed. At roughly the same time the pheromone traps nded and started spewing their contents. Three steps ter, I buried my bde into the skull of one of the Threes that had just finished turning towards me. The first of my undead now also arrived where I had left the first model Three wounded. Their powerful jaws, animated by the nanites, found the alien’s neck, and killed it instantly.

  From where I stood, I could now see every st model Three ready to jump me. Right in the middle of the carnage, I let myself drop into the flow of combat and training. My thoughts stilled, my body moving on instinct and long engrained muscle memory.

  A few of the aliens that hadn’t yet been affected by the pheromones were trying to get to me, and I let their movements direct my own. Step after step, I carefully moved around them, leaving cuts and stab wounds one after the other. In my current situation I didn’t have the luxury to immediately go for a killing blow after every evade, I had to adapt to the tempo the aliens set for me.

  But that was fine by me. My undead gave me enough cover and distraction to ensure that I had time to step out of the way of any incoming attack, and soon enough the entire battlefield was drowned in the pheromones that turned the powerful and fast attacks of the antithesis, into nothing more than drunken stumbling.

  Every so often a dull green fsh illuminated my bdes when they cimed yet another alien, weaving through the mass of bodies like a leaf on the wind. I tried my best to keep my undead spread out, and that paid off when more and more of the aliens joined the ranks.

  Of course, we weren’t entirely without losses. Many of the undead that had been wounded by Zuri’s threads before, succumbed in the fighting. The antithesis weren’t especially good at figuring out which ones were mine and which ones weren’t, but by the time we had killed just shy of half of their forces, the chaos of the brawl had become perfect. None of the aliens could differentiate between friend or foe, and a few of them even killed each other.

  The power of controlling the battlefield. I smiled to myself at the thought.

  Eventually, we started to overwhelm the Threes still alive. They were stumbling, not entirely in control of themselves, and most, if not all, wounded. My horde was pretty decimated as well, more than half of my initial undead now ripped apart, but between them, Zuri, and myself, the outcome was inevitable.

  Jumping over a model Three that tried, and failed, to rush me, I cut open its neck, leaving it to crash to the ground and bleed out. At the same time, Zuri cut open another pair behind me, killing both almost instantly.

  The remaining trio was beset on all sides by my undead, and in short order they were decimated. I stood in the middle of the carnage, surrounded by the undead, and with Zuri close by. With all the chaos finally dying down, I made doubly sure that nothing else was there to try and get the jump on us, but I couldn’t hear, smell, or see anything.

  Finally letting out a long breath, I gnced at Zuri, giving her a warm smile. “Good work.”

  “Thanks… Fucking exhausting, though,” she muttered, taking a deep breath of her own.

  I was happy to see that she had taken my lesson to heart. I did catch her nearly missing it, but she remembered to check the surroundings first, then rex. A small detail, but an important one.

  “Yeah… I don’t think it’d be a good idea to keep running around aimlessly trying to find any more folk,” I said with a frown, taking in the remains of some of the people I could see through the rge windows. “If we weren’t in time to help these folk, then we won’t be in time for the market area. That one’s far further away, and leads past the drop pod again. As much as I hate the idea of leaving folk potentially behind, it’s far too risky for us to check out. Better to head back and hunker down. Maybe try to help find people closer to the shelter. Better chances to find anyone still breathing.”

  Zuri seemed a bit torn. She was actively looking away from the corpses inside, and was very obviously not happy about the situation. But she did nod with a sigh. “I suppose. I don’t like it, but it makes sense. And I can’t deny I’m exhausted. You did most of the work, and I’m still tired as fuck.

  “It’s the stress. This is a situation entirely out of your depth. You are trying to adjust to it, help as best as you can, while simultaneously being confronted with some of the most horrific sights you can make in person. Not being exhausted would be a sign of severe issues.” I gave her a small smile. “It’s also another good lesson. Learn to identify and accept your limits. It might sound like common sense, but you wouldn’t believe how many people get killed because they overestimate themselves or get careless. If you can’t keep going, then you don’t keep going. Even if that might be detrimental. And even if that might cost someone their life. You won’t be able to help everyone, even at the best of times. But if you push too hard and you exhaust yourself too much, all that leads to is your death. And that won’t help anyone.”

  Again, Zuri seemed like she wanted to argue. My methods obviously went against her preferences, not that that was a surprise. In a way, they also went against what I wanted, but I had long since learned to accept that you couldn’t always fix everything the way you wanted to. Best learn to accept that early, rather than to bend yourself out of shape trying to accomplish something impossible and losing sleep over it. I had enough demons to deal with, I didn’t need more. And I didn’t want Zuri to go down that route either.

  Of course, I was certain that this wouldn’t be the end of that discussion. She was too good a soul to just let it go, and I was already prepared for a longer talk about it ter down the line. But right now, we would follow my doctrine, whether she liked it or not. Once she had a better idea of what she was doing, things would be different.

  “Let’s head back for now. Stryx, I need some flesh melters.”

  Do you pn to take your undead with you, or are you going to relinquish control over them?

  “Honestly, as helpful as they are, if we go back to the soldier types, I don’t think it’d be a good idea to bring them with me. Even if we send a warning ahead, they’re bound to be jumpy. Too much risk.”

  I opened my hand and a flesh melter appeared. My undead slowly trotted over to the dead xenos, some pulling the corpses closer, before they colpsed, the nanites returning to me in that familiar haze.

  Time to head back to the shelter and see how else we could be of use.

  Epigraph written by LucyKitsune. She also wrote Foxfire: A Stray Cat Strut Fanfiction on ScribbleHub! It is really underappreciated, go check it out!

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