Book 7 - Chapter 66 - Close Call (Patreon)

As soon as I rounded the rock and saw the bedlam on the other side, I had to stop and stare for a second. I’d only been behind the rock for a minute or two, but it seemed like in that short time the situation had gone sideways.

There was a large semi-spherical void in the ocean floor where one of the snake-heads had been, which should have given the samurai an upper hand.  However, even though the antithesis had lost one of their bruisers, they’d reinforced the remaining monsters with pretty much every model under the sun. Or in this case, the ocean.

The area was completely saturated with Model One and Model Three-Os. There were hunter-killers stalking the perimeter, and at least two of the massive hermit crabs I’d seen earlier. 

Thankfully, we’d also received some reinforcements. Mako was diving through the swarm, ripping things apart, and King Crab had managed to find us and join the battle. Sharron and Depthcharge were firing indiscriminately into the swarm, and even though they had weapons with an extremely high rate of fire, they were just barely able to keep the Antithesis back.

“What the fuck happened in the last few minutes?!?!?” I hissed.

As soon as I opened my mouth, the nearest snake-head thing turned its head towards me, opened its jaws, and unleashed a torrent of oil. I threw my arm out towards the rock and triggered the grapple as fast as I could. 

The mechanism fired out impossibly fast, almost instantly embedding itself in the nearby outcropping before the winch mechanism engaged, yanking me sideways. It was a good thing the grapple was so good, even if it pulled me to the side so fast it felt like I dislocated my arm, because if it had been even a nanosecond slower, that stream probably would have cut me in half. 

The monster turned, trying to track me as I ripped up the ocean floor behind me, so as soon as I got to the rocks, I disengaged the grapple and slipped behind them again.

“Why the FUCK do you assholes have such a hard-on for me?” I shouted in frustration. 

Since I couldn’t risk sticking my head back out, not while the Snake-head was bombarding that side of the rock, I turned and fired the grapple at the other side of the rock. 

The device's launch system might have had a little too much power, and the winch far too much torque for regular use, but down here it was an ideal way for me to get around. I was so fucking done with slowly waddling around this forsaken abyss.

As I disengaged the grapple and stumbled towards the far side of the formation, I brought up my HCARS, fully intending to give the monster a face full of high explosives before it could fire that fucking firehose at me again.

Before I could round the final bend and get a bead on the monster, a massive jaw full of teeth came flying around the corner. Even with my rifle at the ready I just barely had enough time to bring the weapon around and unload into the Antithesis. 

The micromunitions didn’t just punch their way through the creature’s face; they completely removed it. The burst hit the creature in its top jaw, blowing its teeth into tiny pieces before digging further into it’s head. Three shots were enough to dig right through the creature, and blow out the back of the Antithesis’ head. 

I stepped to the side and let the body glide past. “Fucking hunter-killer,” I muttered, stepping back further to avoid the still thrashing tentacles. 

I turned back towards the corner of the rocks again, just in time to see an entire squad of Hunter-Killers come ripping around the side, teeth nashing. 

I backpedalled, throwing out my left arm behind me while firing the HCARS blindly with my right. 

If I had been carrying any other weapon, I probably would have lost my arm, if not my life. Thankfully, even though I couldn’t control the weapon and was firing wildly, the self-guided munitions adjusted just enough to catch the two leading hunter-killers and take them out of the fight. The grapple’s winch engaged, yanking me away as the third one lunged, chomping down on the space my gun had been occupying just a second earlier. 

“I’ve already had to buy two new weapons today; I’m not letting you take a third one,” I growled. The grapple pulled me away faster than the Hunter-Killers could move, so I managed to make a little bit of room and take a couple of potshots at the half-dozen monsters chasing me, blowing holes in the front one before they closed in again.  

I shot the grapple out again, planning to play a game of keep-away, a moment before I realized the direction I’d fired it at had nothing to grab onto. My blood ran cold, and I released the grapple button, intending to dodge the throng long enough to shoot it out again, but instead of retracting, the tether yanked me across the ocean floor. 

I nearly lost my grip on the HCARS as I was unexpectedly ripped off my feet and pulled towards the hovering anchor. Somehow I managed to take a couple shots while my brain tried to make sense of what was happening. It took me an embarrassingly long time to remember that Nyx had mentioned the grapple would have a spatial anchor. In my defense, I did have a pack of Squid-shark hybrids trying to devour me whole, so I was a little distracted.

Using the grapple to zip back and forth, I managed to keep ahead of, and slowly wear down the pursuing Antithesis. After the last zip I held my ground, and unloaded the HCARS into the last two Hunter-Killer, putting them down before they could close the distance. 

“I’m sick and tired of this bullshit!” I grumbled, reaching out to replace the magazine until I remembered that the weapon had self-replicating ammo. “Nyx, you said you had an idea why these things were targeting me, right? Why? How do I get them to fuck off?” 

Well, it’s just a theory, but during some high-level, long-term incursions, it’s not unheard of for Antithesis command units to identify persistent threats, such as powerful samurai, and prioritize them for elimination, Nyx replied.

I stopped in my tracks and blinked stupidly as I processed the information. “Are you telling me that fucking Gene Tender is targetting me out of spite?” I asked.

No, targeting something out of spite is what you do when you get emotional and really want to kill something, Nyx replied. The Antithesis make logical decisions based upon the scale of the threat. For example, a powerful foe that can stand toe-to-toe with the swarm, then chases the primary unit, constantly harassing and boxing it in.

“Ahhhhh… yeah, now that you mention it I can see why the Tender would want to get rid of me,” I said, before looking back towards the rocks, and the battle beyond. “Wait… are you saying this entire fucked up ambush was setup just to get me into the water? There’s no way the Tender knew that I’d come down here, right?”

It’s unlikely this ambush was set up JUST to deal with you; thinning out the samurai in the area does nothing but benefit it, but it’s very likely that it adjusted the situation to put you at a disadvantage if you showed up, and installed biological perogitives into the models to prioritize your destruction. 

“That’s terrifying,” I muttered. “But, ironically, I think that prerogative may have backfired. Those snakeheads didn’t just prioritize me; they ignored bigger threats in the area. Pretty much everyone else down here is a better underwater combatant than I am, so letting them get free hits…”

It does seem to be an extreme oversight. Although I had doubts about your earlier theory that the Gene Tender was cognitively impaired, it does seem to make extremely intelligent strategic moves while making serious, nearly fatal mistakes in the details, Nyx admitted. A healthy Gene Tender would not make these mistakes. 

“Hey, if it keeps me alive and makes it easier to get close to this thing, I’ll take whatever advantage I can get,” I said. “If these things are obsessed with me, then maybe I can make this fight a little easier on the others.”

How? Nyx asked.

I didn’t answer Nyx directly, instead I switched to the command network. [Heavy, are you in position over the combat zone yet?]

[From what I understand we’re in firing position,] Heavy replied. [Why?]

[Because I want you to gather as many moose as you can in the next two minutes and join me down here,] I replied. 

[What happened to the troops you took with you?] he asked.

[They were ambushed, but don’t worry about that,] I said. [It seems like all the antithesis down here have an extreme hard-on for me, and I plan to take full advantage of that. Bring a combination of rapid fire and heavy weapons, because if everything goes to plan all you’ll need to do is mow the Antithesis down. It’ll be like shooing Antithesis in a barrel!] 

There was a momentary pause. [That was absolutely terrible,] Heavy said, [but I’ll trust your judgement, and be there in a minute.]