Book 6 - Chapter 36 - Advance
I sat in the back of my command vehicle, staring at the tiny holographic display built into the comm panel, doing my best to shovel a box of chicken and rice that Nyx had provided me with into my mouth.
The Family had just managed to get the Antithesis surge out of control, contained the various tendrils that had spread like a plague in all directions, and wanted to discuss how to deal with the hive itself. Although I didn’t want to miss that discussion, I didn’t really want to waste time by going all the way back to one of the conference rooms on Bear Force One, not with how volatile this battlefield had been, so I decided to just connect using the closest comm point.
“You know, you could have just asked Spooky to send down your portable holo device,” Nora said, making me jump as she came around the side of the Kodiak and stepped inside.
“Maybe, but as far as I’m concerned, this is good enough. I don’t need a fancy holo setup to watch a strategic briefing,” I replied sullenly.
“And what if they want you to participate?” she asked.
“Then they’ll have to deal with a voice-only connection. We’re in the middle of a pitched battle, and I’m not going to abandon my position just so the armchair strategists can get a better look at me,” I grumbled. “Besides, I’m eating.”
“Fair enough,” Nora chuckled before taking a seat across from me. Her sleek white and pink power armor was streaked with mud, blood, and what I could only assume were guts. It was kind of hard to tell since they’d been caught in the joints of her armor and completely shredded by combat.
When she pulled off her smooth, nearly featureless helmet with two antennae that looked like swept-back rabbit ears, I gestured at the length of sinew. “You’ve got a little something on you…”
Nora looked down at the long length of Antithesis flesh and sighed. “I probably stepped in a Model Four without noticing again, those tentacles seem to get caught on everything.”
“Is your armor really strong enough that you can completely ignore Model Fours?” I asked in surprise.
“You’ve seen the situation outside; there are so many Antithesis throwing themselves at the walls that I have to choose my targets. I feel like if I target anything smaller than a Model Twelve, I’m wasting my time,” Nora replied as she reached down and ripped the tentacle out of her armor’s knee joint. She dropped the remains to the floor and stomped down on them, and a second later the tendril dissolved into a puddle of ooze.
“Couldn’t you have done that outside?” I grumbled.
“Why? The nanites the boots inject into Antithesis break their flesh down into its composite elements. It’s completely safe,” she said.
“Because it’s gross,” I replied, wrinkling my nose for just a moment and shoveling another forkful of food into my mouth. “And I’m eating.”
“It doesn’t seem to have affected your appetite,” Nora chuckled.
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“I’m from the undercity,” I replied. “I’ve eaten around things a lot grosser than that. It doesn’t mean that I like it.”
Nora smirked and casually swept her foot across the floor of the vehicle and launched the growing puddle of ooze out the door. “There, fixed now.”
“Thank you,” I muttered.
The panel beeped quietly, and the incoming message light flashed on, so I reached out with my augs and prompted it to connect. A moment later the small holo projector built into the Kodiak’s roof flickered, and a tiny version of Blackwatch materialized in the middle of the cabin.
“Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us. I know that many of you are currently in active combat zones and want to get back to the battle, but now that we’ve managed to cut off the Antithesis tendrils and create a proper perimeter, we thought it would be prudent to let you know our plans,” Blackwatch said, before waving his hand. The hologram shifted, changing from him to a geographical map of the Pacific Northwest. “As many of you probably know by now, the hive developed advanced anti-orbital weaponry that is capable of penetrating the defenses of our orbital platforms, removing our strongest first-strike weapons from the table. There may be ships in the Mars fleet capable of withstanding those strikes, but they’re still a few days out. We’ve begun bombarding the hive with a variety of missiles, but unfortunately the Antithesis seem to have developed secondary weapon organs, which are capable of shooting down our missiles. Some are getting through, but not enough to make a serious effect on the Antithesis reproduction capabilities.”
A red dome appeared on the map, centered upon the hive. “The Antithesis also seem to have developed several Anti air models, capable of penetrating the armor of most aircraft we’ve sent into the area. Making any sort of aerial assault almost impossible,” Blackwatch explained. “Fortunately, while the advanced models seem to have powerful Anti-air capabilities, their ground-based units seem to be more defensively focused, meaning many of our ground teams have been able to hold their own, and in some cases make progress towards the hive structure. The most notable of these assaults are our teams in the east, led by Dial-up and Lag. Their tanks have been more than a match for anything the Antithesis have thrown at them so far.”
The dome disappeared, replaced by a number of green dots. The most notable were two massive ones on the eastern front and an almost solid line on the west, where we were. “Our current plan is to rely upon Dial-up and Lag to steadily push in from the east, while the other teams attempt to keep the Antithesis pinned down,” Blackwatch explained. “I know some of you have complained that we’re not making enough progress and have asked for permission to push in, but I’m asking for your patience. Most of you have not seen even close to what these Antithesis are capable of.”
I snorted and shoved another forkful of food into my mouth. “Telling a bunch of impatient samurai to sit still—yeah, that’s going to go over well,” I muttered. “I expect we’ll hear about a bunch of people abandoning their positions soon, and maybe even some casualties.”
“Hopefully most of them will realize they’re in over their head and retreat before things get too bad,” Nora said.
“We’ll see…” I grumbled.
“Now, we do have some good news for you all. Some of our more academically centered members have been working on a solution for the fungus, and they’ve developed a serum that should work, and we’ll be delivering some to each of your teams within an hour. We expect the Antithesis to adapt to it eventually, but hopefully it’ll be able to do far more damage than the nanite based attacks we’ve attempted previously. It’s our hope that once the phage is applied that we’ll be able to seriously cut down upon the Antithesis’ ability to regain lost biomass, making it possible for all teams to start pushing towards the hive.”
The hologram returned to Blackwatch, who straightened the tie of the fancy three-piece suit. “I’m sure many of you have questions, and if you do, I recommend you contact your local Family representative. I’m sorry, but since many of the participants are busy, I do not want to extend this briefing any longer with an extended Q and A,” he explained. “I wish you all luck. If everything goes as planned, Dial up and Lag should be able to push into the hive before the Mars fleet arrives. Good luck to you all.”
The broadcast cut off a moment later, leaving Nora and me to think about what was said.
“What do you think?” Nora finally asked.
“I think relying upon a pair of samurai to solve this entire situation is probably a bad idea, especially after everything I’ve witnessed here,” I muttered, “but who knows? Maybe they’re strong enough to take care of everything for us.”
“Maybe,” she agreed quietly, before pushing herself to her feet and grabbing her helmet. “Personally, I think we should do our best to deal with the Antithesis here and earn enough points that we’ll be ready to assist if things go badly.”
I scooped up the last of my meal, stuffed it in my mouth, and then crushed the container in my hands. “It’s always best to be prepared,” I agreed. “Let’s get to work.”