TBoB - Book 7 - Chapter 64 - From the Depths (Patreon)

“Nyx, three-panel bear-a-cade, make the panels as tall and tilt the side panels to give me some cover from the side,” I snapped as the Antithesis slowly began to open its mouth.The wall flashed into place, and less than a second later, I heard the odd, oily breath weapon impact the other side. 

That won’t keep it for long, Nyx said.

“Yeah, no shit,” I muttered. “I’m just hoping it’ll keep me alive long enough to come up with a plan.”

You could purchase an aquapack or scooter, if you wanted to retreat, Nyx said.

“I considered that, but considering I’ve got a busted arm and haven’t used either one before, it feels like too much of a risk. I’m just as likely to slam face first into the ocean floor as I am to escape,” I replied, shaking my head. “I also considered buying more bears and otters as a distraction, but these things are completely focused on me, so I don’t think that’d work.” 

I have an idea about why that might be; however, given how close that Antithesis is, it’s probably better to discuss that later. You need to do something now, Nyx prompted.

“I know,” I said, biting my lip. “I think my best option might be to purchase a bunch of moose and try to cause enough damage to force this head back. If I hit it with something that has a significant punch and a high rate of fire, it might be enough to destroy the head faster than it can regen.” 

A moment later, a stream of bullets whizzed over the Bear-a-cade, smashing into the creature and interrupting its breath attack.

“I thought I needed to request specific equipment, or at least approve the order before you could deliver goods,” I said.

That wasn’t me, Nyx replied.

I half-turned, not willing to completely take my eyes off the wall, just in case it started to crack or buckle, and was just barely able to make out a hulking shape through the shimmering oil behind me. “Who’s there?” I yelled.

“Bear girl? That you?” I thought you weren’t coming down here, a familiar deep voice echoed back. As they approached, the shape slowly became clearer and clearer, until Depthcharge finally emerged from the inky darkness. I’d only talked to him through comms and seen him on camera feeds before, and now, seeing him up close, I realized he was much, much larger than I'd thought. He was almost as big as Sharron’s Class II suit, and that thing had been more mech than powersuit. “I thought you weren’t coming down here.”“I wasn’t planning to; however, after the explosion I figured I was probably the best person to lead the rescue operation. I just had the raw bear power to cover a wide area,” I replied. “Things are not going as well as I hoped.” 

“I can see that,” he grumbled. His rotary harpoon gun stopped firing for a moment, and a large rectangular box dropped out of the bottom. A second later, another box appeared in his other hand, and he slammed it into place; it immediately started firing again. 

“Watch out. There are multiple of these creatures in the area; they have a breath attack capable of cutting through cover, and they seem to be able to control dead bodies, using them as weapons. I them using King Fisher, along with a couple others,” I explained quietly. 

“No respect for the dead,” Depth Charge growled. 

“Uhhh… have you managed to drive it back a little? I’m hesitant to stick my head out while these things have such a hard-on for me,” I said.

“I’ve managed to drive this creature beyond the rock formation. Every time I destroy the head…” Depthcharge muttered.

“It just reforms, I know,” I said. “Thanks for buying me time. These things have been so relentless I haven’t had a chance to fix my wound.” I put my back against the bear-a-cade and took a deep breath in before glancing at the big man again. “Where have you been? I’ve been here for a couple of minutes, and since the blast crater is on the other side, you couldn’t have been caught in the explosion.”

“You’re correct, I wasn’t,” Depthcharge grumbled. “I was, however, caught in the blast wave. It knocked me clear off my feet and carried me into a shallow cravasse. It took a few minutes for me to climb out, even with the help.”“Help?” I said, tilting my head to the side. “What help?”

“Mako. As soon as she dragged me out of that hole, she took off in this direction, eager to look for other survivors. I expected her to beat me here,” Depthcharge said.

“I haven’t seen her, but the oil and chaff are so thick that there’s a chance she might have missed Sharron and me when she came by. From what I’ve seen, she moves quite fast,” I said.

“It’s possible. I just hope nothing's happened to the girl,” Depthcharge replied.

I nodded. “Do you think you can keep those things back for a minute or two? I’ll get you some backup, but I think I’m going to have to remove my armour before I can fix my arm,” I said, lifting my ruined arm. 

“As long as they don’t throw anything more at me, I should easily be able to handle things,” he replied. 

“One of the bodies has a torpedo launcher, or at least did. I wasn’t able to see if that corpse was one of the ones destroyed in the bombardment earlier,” I said. “Watch out for that. Also I managed to launch a drone to cut through the interference and re-establish contact with the surface. Sharron is using it to arrange another bombardment, so you might want to connect and make sure you’re outside of the blastzone. Once I fix my arm I’ll do my best to roundivous with you all again.” 

The big man nodded. “Don’t take too long. I’ve lost a lot of friends today, I don’t want to lose anyone else.”“Don’t worry, it’ll take more than an oversized water snake to kill me,” I said.

“Good to know,” he replied, slowly trudging past my bear-a-cade.

“Nyx, can you get me a squad of meese, along with some weapons that’ll be effective underwater please?” I said, turning off external comms. 

I can water proof their lasers, and external reactors, however they wouldn’t be as effective as they are on the surface. I’d recommend picking up the plans for Sharron’s lasers once this fight is over, Nyx said. And the plural of moose is still moose, not meese.

“Why can’t they be consistent when naming shit,” I muttered. “You know what? Forget the lasers, we need something with a significant punch. Arm them all with those missile and torpedo launchers, and give them enough ammo to last for a couple minutes. I can always get them more once I’m done fixing myself up.”

Sounds sensible. Done! Nyx replied.

A moment later several moose materialized around me. Unlike the regular models, which had massive reactors on their backs to power their weapons, these ones appeared to have something similar to a magazine with a stack of missiles inside and a hole in the bottom so they could easily pull out extra ammunition. 

“I need you to keep those Antithesis off me until I can rejoin the fight,” I ordered. “Oh, and watch out for the dead samurai, they might have weapons capible of injuring you. If you can sever them from the creatures, or destroy the bodies, do it. I’d love to be able to retrieve their remains so they can be returned to their loved ones, but I don’t want to take any chances either. Do what needs to be done.”

The moose saluted, and sprinted off around the side of my bear-a-cades. Once they were gone I looked down at my ruined arm. “It’s going to take a minute to peel all this armour off, that thing really did a number to it.”

Consider yourself lucky, if we were deeper in the ocean, approaching crush depth, then that little breach in your armour would have been enough to let the water in and your body would have been crushed by the pressure, Nyx said.

“That can happen?” I exclaimed in horror.

If you’re deep enough. Thankfully we’re shallow enough that all you need to deal with the bends. Nyx said.

I stared at my wound for a moment, then reached out and started peeling whatever armor I could get my fingers around away. “I hate the fucking ocean,” I muttered. “Even the water’s trying to kill me. I’m never coming here again.”