"In the grand scheme of things, we are -to an embarrassing degree- irrelevant. While philosophers of the past have proposed this idea in context of the divine, or the mass of humanity, or in the face of a cold and uncaring universe which will suffer an inevitable and unavoidable heat death at the end of time, leaving neither record or trace of the faintest scrap of matter visible to light, I posit this with a slightly different context. We, humanity, as a race, are irrelevant in the grand scheme of races which have come to face the Antithesis. I have had many oportunities to discuss the other alien species which are embroiled or which have been embroiled in the exact conflict we now find ourselves. The Protectors create Vanguard to fight the antithesis as a means to allow a civilization a path to uplift - letting us learn from the abandonded scraps of material the Vanguard leave behind - as an afterthought - as they purchase what is needed to fight increasingly stronger threats.

  On some of these alien worlds, the fight against the Antithesis has been going on for thousands of years already. I want you to think about that. At least three other Vanguard species - somewhere in this gaxy or universe - have been fighting the Antithesis since before the rise of Egypt - since the time when our ancestors were using rocks and traps to kill mammoths.

  We purchase equipment not made by the protectors themselves - we make equipment those vanguard species invented after their own round of fighting.

  Some of those species we now purchase our catalogues from are now extinct, or refugees on other Vanguard worlds because the Antithesis overran them.

  Food for thought, no?"

  -Samurai Hardfought, Private interview, April 12th 2039

  The warm dry wind that pulled at my freshly re-grown hair carried countless scents I couldn't identify as I clung to the side of the building, one foot hanging off the edge of the hole i had blown in the wall as I leaned out to breath air that definitely had too many hydrocarbons in it for anyone's health or safety, eyes wide as I surveyed the world before me. This city - Salt City - stretche in a line from north to south, completely filling a valley between two rows of towering mountains. Snow capped the mountains i could see just on the other side of this megastructure, rising prominently above the ndscape, and I could see the faint outline of an Antihesis pod that had smmed into the side of the mountain. Those had to be the 'Rocky Mountains' Scyl had told me about.

  The chaos I had glimpsed was far clearer now as well. A massive ring- almost like a wall - of megastructures grew off in the distance, clearly marking that area of the city as important, and I could see that a surprising amount of the anti-aircraft fire I was seeing was focused from that cluster of buildings. Massive Pterosaur like creatures - twisted and malformed - sailed through the bright sunlight of the afternoon, making them easy targets for turrets and samurai alike. Numerous things caught my attention, zers, explosions, detonations, and what appeared to be a PMC decked out entirely in white and gold uniforms marching down a street about a block over at the base level of the megastructures, but still above the undercity, but I wasn't allowed to focus on that for long.

  I insist that you take the time NOW to take that neural reconstruction suite. I fear that the education model required to operate the battle prosthetics may already have caused irreprerable damage to your grey matter which may prevent memory recovery, and I do feel that you should take any advantage you can. My interface chip was teleported into the base of your skull with the most limited of electornic capabilities, and you currently posess only the augments included in your cybernetic eyes to connect with the wider world, which we should not upgrade untill your mental facutlies are as close to repaired as we can manage.

  I sighed.

  "Alright, fine. Sandwich please."

  A thin pstic crate about a foot long appeared on the floor of the hallway I had burst through, and I sat down, letting my legs hang over the edge as I unwrapped it, watching the mayhem before me.

  Point total reduced to 712.

  "Oh, I made that much? How much is this going to cost?"

  Your unnecesary sandwich cost a single point. The memory suite? Ten points.

  I blinked. Ah. That was pretty cheap.

  Do you understand my frustration on your behalf now?

  I took a bite out of my sandwich, as one of the white and gold tanks below us fired off a missile that seemed to hum as it sailed through the air to sm into what had to be a mass of antithesis somewhere down below.

  "I do... and I feel like you want me to apologize." I chewed quickly, shocked at just how good the sandwich I was eating tasted.

  No, I want you to tell me you would like to purchase the neural repair suite and let me un-break my samurai, thank you very much.

  I picked up on the hint of endearment hidden in the scolding, and I ughed, wincing as that drew the attention of a small flock of model-ones, forcing me to trigger the whistling birds still mounted to my back, the small missiles ncing through the creepy murder-chickens from space.

  "Very well scyl, Memory suite!"

  THANK YOU. Please step away from the edge, there is a non-zero chance that you may halucinate quite vividly, and I'd rather not see you spt into a bloody mess on the pavement.

  I pulled myself into the hole I had carved through the megastructure like a tarantu crawling back into its cave, and I felt a shock at the base of my neck. I winced, my hand reflexivly coming up to swat at the stinging sensation the way you might swat at a bug, before asplitting headache seared through my skull. I clutched my head in pain as I curled up into a ball on the floor, mechanical vents and heat sinks of my body fluttering and fluctuating as I writhed on the floor, forcing my voice to stay at a low moan, rather than the scream I wanted to let out. It felt like my mind was being infted by a bike pump, stretching inwards somehow in a way I didn't understand, waves of searing pain fshing through my body. I was remembering things - I could remember a specific yer of this city. I knew that Salt-City was a theocracy, ruled over by the Priest's Council. I knew too many things, too fast, that I had once known. The Antithesis, the samurai, the history of the country that used to be one united nation from coast to coast, now fractured into warring city-states.

  The pain ended.

  I gasped, standing to my feet and letting my mechanical limbs drag behind me like some kind of cape as I walked back towards the opening.

  My thoughts felt fuzzy, as I tried to think through the repairs done, shaking my head to clear the fog as best as I could.

  "Still there scyl?" I asked quietly, not wanting to put in the effort to raise my voice.

  Still here. Things look much better on the inside, my young samurai - however, it appears there were new nural pathways created during the past few hours that got in the way of some connections. Unfortunate, but... we put most of you back together!

  I smiled, pnting a hand agaisnt the wall with a metallic cnk.

  "That's good, I suppose." I stepped back towards the opening in the wall I had made, staring out at the sunlightm the devastation. I felt... weirdly neutral, seeing what had ahppened to Salt City. I could remember a little bit, but it was coming back to me slowly, like small shards of gss slowly fusing back together into a single mirror. It would take a while before everything made sense.

  I was tired. I hurt where I could, and the splitting headache wasn't making things any easier. I leaned against the hole in the wall, dimly trying to determine where I should go next. The people with the white robes maybe? My brain was itching at the sight of them, a coctail of emotions that were not entirely pleasant. Still no clear memories though. I knew that before bringing part of a building down on myself, I had lived here. I knew that I had opinions on how things were run here, and I also knew that before this... I had been powerless to change it. One of tens of thousands in the under-rungs of society.

  I folded my arms. A few things came to mind. The PMCs would stay topside. I could remember that now. They were hired by companies, or by the grand churches, to protect their assets, appear benevolent, and ensure that their interests were secured. They wouldn't care how many died in the undercity beneath the foundation-ptes of the mega-structures. They would protect the temples, they would protect their waterlines.

  I gritted my teeth.

  It was then that I noticed a figure dressed in white soar through the sky towards me at a breakneck speed, dressed in some kind of white garment, some kind of round shield strapped to their arm and weilding... a spear? I stared in shock as the figure pointed the nce down at a knot of antithesis, and a nce of white light roared from the point, a ray of psma that fired down with enough force to obliterate most antithesis below, gssing the concrete they had stood on. I watched a while longer. The bottom of his feet glowed slightly, and seemed to be propelling this person through the air, and i caught sight of some stabilizers fring from their arms every once in a while, as they practically danced across the sky, tiny bursts of light searing through model ones that tried to swarm them.

  One of the pterosaur looking creatures turned away from downtown - away from the main temple - it began to swoop through the air right for us. I lifted my left arm, rocket uncher deploying as I raised a limb to try to deal with the threat before it could attack what I figured was another Samurai, another Vanguard. It wasn't neccesary. I stared in shock as the samurai in front of me grinned, the blue lights on the soles of their feet and the vents on their arms fring as they shot straight up into the sky, before dropping back down on the monster's back, thrusting their spear into it's spine.

  White fire errupted inside the alien, forcing a horrifying shriek from it's mouth, before the pterosaur began dropping to the ground like a stone.

  "What... what was that?"

  Model eleven. Fairly tenacious. If you could get within physical contact with it, it is something you could fight. However, your current loadout is not conducive to dealing with such threats. You have thus far focused on melee capabilities and durability, with countermeasures to deal with opponents you deem annoying to fight - such as the model ones. You will need some way to either close distance, or to fight at a longer range, if you are to deal with many of the models which are to come.

  I nodded slowly, pushing a hand through my hair with a sigh.

  "Well then. I'll start thinking about what I want to do to solve those problems."

  I felt almost a nod of satisfaction, from the AI inside my brain, and then noticed that the figure in white had turned back towards me, and was racing towards me now. I deployed my bdearms reflexively, the four metalic tentacles affixed to my spine whirring into action with the whine of hundreds of servos and motors as the gripping appendages fred open to deal with the new threat, the bde like metal spines clinking and rattling together slightly.

  As they drew closer, I could see more about them. The person appeared to be a surprisingly tall woman, young, somewhere in the teens to twenties range, and her skin was covered with some kind of shimmering armor, as well as what appeared to be a tunic. She smiled, hovering just at the edge of the building.

  "Well, It's good to see we got another new one! My AI tells me you managed to remove a hive from this building - that's impressive for day one. What's your name?"

  I nodded, blinking twice as the light reflected off of her golden armor right into my eyes.

  "I am... " My mouth hung open. My eye twitched. I could remember the exact yout of the old maps, back when the salt fts had still been a ke, back before the country that had occupied this area had splintered apart. Memories of running, of carrying stolen items fshed through my mind...

  "I.... Ah..." A spark flew off of one of the joints between my metallic body and my human self, as my headache fred to full intensity. My name. I still didn't have my name. Street levels, a man with tatoos running up the side of his body, a young girl with brown hair and tattered clothes - My headache fred to full intensity, and I clutched at the side of my head with a hiss.

  I sighed.

  "I don't really know."

  The samurai in front of me frowned in a sympathetic fashion, gesturing to request room to nd. I rexed my mechanical limbs, the four tentacles pulling behind me and anchoring me to the wall, leaving me with one foot hanging over the edge as the woman in the greek tunic nded next to me.

  "My name is Illiad. At least, while I'm doing samurai work it is."

  "Illiad?"

  She blushed. "Yeah, well, My actual name is Helen, and the samurai who found me thought it was funny. I've leaned into it since, and the people here seem to eat it up - or decry me for daring to represent 'the pagan' in such times as these. Could be worse - There's a samurai here in town called 'Hexabarra', she gets most of the hate from the churches."

  I nodded slowly. I feel like... I remembered that name? An image of a woman in dark clothes with swirling mists around her came to mind.

  I gnced at her attire. "So the illiad... is greek?"

  She turned to stare at me, jaw dropped. I fidgeted awkwardly, servos hissing as I adjusted myself.

  "You don't know the Illiad? The oddesey? Homer?"

  I blinked slowly.

  "Um... I know an oddesey is a long journey, is that what you mean? I feel like boats are involved?"

  My AI interjected with a sad sigh.

  You don't even understand the significance of my name... this is just depressing.

  I turned to the wall, to make it clear I wasn't talking to the blonde smaurai next to me.

  "Your name is greek too?"

  I pulled my name from this very Oddesey myth which Illiad just mentioned. I reccomend you read a summary at some point, it is one of your world's main cultural works.

  Illiad cocked her head to the side.

  "You know you don't have to talk out loud for your AI to understand you, right?"

  "What? They can read minds? Scyl told me she couldn't."

  Illiad blinked, then ughed.

  "No, no - You can subvocalize, say things without saying them."

  I nodded slowly. "Im... confused, but I'll figure it out."

  Indeed you will. As much as you ARE the opposite of stealthy when it comes to combat, you still don't want to be giving your intentions away by speaking to me if your are dealing with other humans in their many conflicts and self-serving interactions. Being able to communicate with me without having to speak will be a great advantage.

  Illiad sighed as she facepalmed, ignorant to Scyl's comments. "We can work on enlightening you ter. What should I call you? If you can't remember your name, I'll still need to call you something."

  I grunted, arms still folded as I looked down at the streets below, trying to identify where the antithesis were thickest.

  "Honestly... I don't know. My memory only really stretches back the st seven hours or so. Nanites did their best to repair my brain but... I know for a fact that there are going to be gaps. You could call me 'New Samurai,' I guess. I get the feeling i'd normally pick a name from things I've seen recently but... that would be shit like, 'Hallway', 'door', 'dead alien motherfucker', stuff like that. Not ideal name material."

  The samurai next to me bit her lip as she thought., before shaking her head vigorously.

  "No. Absolutely no. 'New Samurai'?" She stuck out her tongue in mock disgust. "Lets see... Mechanical limbs... no memory... kind of creepy... scythe? No, no- there are already two scythes in the west, plus that famous fashion-scythe up north... don't want to make problems..." she started tapping her foot furiously, and I raised an eyebrow in concern.

  "You alright Illiad?"

  She waved a hand. "Yeah, yeah, just... dumb samurai traditions."

  "Traditions?"

  "About names, yeah." She pointed her nce down at a massive creature that looked almost like a centipede as it burrowed through a building, sending rubble tumbling down as the creature beelined right for the column of white and gold-cd soldiers marching down the street. The PMC opened fire almost immediately, but turned back to their prior fight the instant Illiad's nce errupted with white psma that sheared through the air, carving through the massive monster with what appeared to be no effort at all.

  My eyes opened wide. I had fought a model five, and I had cheesed my way through dealing with a model six - this thing was huge. It was as if someone had taken an amtrak or small train, and given it a will. It could have swallowed me whole three times over, and I imagined that it had swallowed bigger things than me already. I didn't think I would have been able to kill that thing. It moved too fast, it crushed through a wall that I knew would still leave me as a semi-metalic pancake, and I watched a few malformed and injured model threes haul themselves from it's body to nd on the asphault with a wet spt, before additional bursts from Illiad's nce reduced them to crisps.

  I turned to the samurai next to me in shock. How... how did someone get that strong? What would I have to do to be able to operate at that scale?

  Illiad was pacing now, still tapping her lips with one finger.

  "Scyl... what was that thing?" I whispered, still in shock. "It was huge."

  Model fourteen. I highly advise if you see one within the next forty-eight to one-hundred and twelve hours, that you absolutely do not engage.

  "forty-eight to over a hundred hours? Why the long leeway?"

  you're insane. A normal Samurai, I would just tell 'do not engage you will not be ready.' However, you have proven that you have no self preservation, so may accrue points more rapidly than some, or you will end up dead and dismembered in an alien's stomach. Normally, I would predict you being able to deal with such a creature within oh... a year or so. However, unprecidented times and whatnot. More antithesis, more samurai, and more points, as you would say, the shit has hit the proverbial fan.

  Illiad was still muttering potential names to herself. "Hmmm... wraith? Ghost? No... you don't do invisibility or matter-phasing shit... Reaper? No... too many reapers everywhere still... Iron Reaper? No... still doesn't solve the Reaper problem... Spider maybe?" She gnced at the mechanical limbs that anchored me to the wall with narrowed eyes. "No... not really spider-like are they..."

  I sighed. Illiad snapped her fingers to point at me.

  "I've got it."

  "What?"

  "You don't remember much, right?"

  I raised my hands to my sides in confusion. "Yeah, just, fragments, echos of memories that bounce around, that fre up sometimes, enough to know what's going on, where I am, but... not really useful."

  She grinned, perfect white teeth shining in the harsh sun of Salt City, leaving her practically glowing even through the smog.

  "Exactly, you said it yourself, Echo! You said it yourself. You could even lean into the name with like, teleportation shit, or duplicate bodies as you get stronger, you know?"

  "Duplicate bodies?"

  The samurai next to me waved a hand dismissivly again.

  "Yeah, a few samurai have multiple bodies all operating at the same time. Others just rely on repcement bodies whenever one dies. What do you think?"

  I gritted my teeth.

  "Not really a fan of the name, it really doesn't seem to rete to more than the fact I know nothing about myself but..." I gnced down. "We have shit to do, and I can't think of anything better for now. Use that if you have to, but please let me know if you think of something-anything - better."

  She sighed, and nodded with a fake pout.

  "Works for me I suppose." She lifted what was clearly some kind of extremely advanced sheild, interlocking metal ptes covering some kind of pulsating generator in the middle, pcing her gold-armored hand through the straps to grip the handle. I didn't know what it did, but I would have been lying if I said I wasn't excited to find out after seeing what her spear could do.

  She lifted that spear with a grin. "I won't get quite as many points as I'd like, but you'll get a lot more, want to tag along on the ground? Us old guard have the biggest threats taken care of already, most of the bastards nded in the old ogden area, and back at southern border of Salt City where it meets the grassnds, but there are plenty of small hordes like this one that need to get mopped up. Wanna have some fun, get some points before the end of the day?"

  Small horde?

  I gnced back down at the mat of antithesis bodies covering the lowest streets of the Mega-structures, at the model fives and threes that were trying to swarm the bridges connecting mega-buildings only to be met with stiff resistance from gunfire and detonations. This was small?

  I flexed my bdearms, and cracked my neck as I re-engaged the mechanical limbs on my spine, the robotic tentacles whirring to light as dim red lights flickered to life along their lengths.

  "No compints from me."