TBoB - Book 7 - Chapter 68 - In and Out (Patreon)

“So this is where you’ve been hiding yourself,” a voice declared behind me, causing me to spin around and lower a hand to my belt. “It’s nice, a little small, but cozy,” Mako finished before flashing me a toothy grin.

“Yeah, well, I don’t really have much of a choice. If I step out of here, those stupid snake-heads will try and cut me apart with their breath attacks,” I grumbled. “I honestly didn’t think that it would take this long to kill them.”“It,” Mako corrected. “I’ve plunged into the oil a couple times, thinking that if I could find the creature’s bodies I could plunge one of my explosive harpoons into it, and finally finish the things off. What I discovered is they’re a single entity, the necks all converge in what I can only describe as a tangle of vines, and that massive bundle seemed to snake back in the direction of where that leviathan detonated. I think they might be similar to a Model Thirteen by how far the bundle stretched, you know, anchored to a location and drawing nutrients directly from a hive.”“That would mean there was a hive somewhere around here,” I muttered. “Which would make sense, considering we’re encountering a second wave of Antithesis. Why didn’t you cut the bundle?”

“Trust me, I tried,” Mako replied. “Not only was it tough as shit, but as soon as I attacked, not only did two of the heads turn my way, but a large part of the swarm seemed to redirect in my direction. I may be strong, but fighting against a horde by myself while half blind? Even I have my limits.”“Well… Fuck,” I muttered. “I created this bunker in order to draw the Antithesis’ attention, and give you guys enough room to take down the snake-heads without having to worry about that breath attack. I didn’t realize that they were part of a single entity. It sounds like even if we were to cut it off at the trunk, it could probably just grow more heads. We’ll probably have to cut it off at the source if I want to get out of this metal box.”

“That won’t be easy. I could easily follow that monster’s neck back to the hive, it’s large enough that I can easily keep track of it even in this oily goop; However, the hive has to be just spewing out units to keep up an offensive of this magnitude. Even if I was able to fight my way through them all, I wouldn’t be able to get a message out without coming all the way back here thanks to the interference. 

“You could take someone with you to watch your back,” I suggested. “It doesn’t look like the snake-head has any intention of leaving me alone anytime soon… Although I really wish they would, I’m getting tired of their fucking breath attack. It sounds like someone’s sandblasting the outside of my shelter.”

“No one’s fast enough to keep up with me,” Mako replied proudly. “And even if they were, it would be extremely difficult for us to keep track of each other at that speed. One of us could end up as a puppet of that monster out there.”

“Speaking of which… I haven’t seen Kingfisher’s corpse for a while, or any of the others for that matter,” I said quietly. 

“Humboldt was busy cutting them down when I arrived, and I took the bodies back to the surface so they couldn’t be used against us,” Mako explained. “It was the least we could do, no one deserves that shit.”“No, they don’t. You did the right thing,” I said. “Unfortunately, while that cuts down on the Antithesis’ firepower, it doesn’t help us deal with the root of the problem.”“Quite literally the root of the problem,” Mako chirped. “So, you have any ideas?”

“Unfortunately, I’m coming up blank here. We’ve already hit the thing with several bombardments, and the thing’s still standing. I don’t know what we can do without either clearing up the water, so the fleets can see what’s happening down here, or we get the hive’s coordinates so we can cut the Antithesis off at the source,” I said. 

“Someone deployed water purifiers around this area; maybe we can put down more and clear up the water enough to get a clear look at what’s going on,” Mako suggested.

“The purifiers are expensive, and only really work in a localized area,” I said, shaking my head. “They’ll definitely help clean up the area, given enough time, but they’re not something we can easily set up in the middle of combat.”“You created those?” Mako asked suddenly. 

“Well, my AI Nyx did anyway. They’re based upon the manufacturing system up on my ship,” I said. “Why?”

“Do you know how many samurai would kill for a system like that?” Mako exclaimed. “The ability to clear all the contaminants out of the water after a battle, without having to buy specialized equipment, or sit and monitor the situation?”“I’ve never thought about it before. I just normally have the bears throw a handful of fleshmelters into the Antithesis once the battle is over and leave it at that,” I admitted. 

“Typical,” Mako snorted. “You know, I can think of a better way to use those than just dropping them into the middle of the ocean.”“Oh? Like what?”

“Would you mind sharing the catalogs you used with me, and a few other people in the area?” Mako asked.

“Sure, if you think it would help,” I replied. “With who?” 

“I’ll get you a list, but I almost guarantee that Atlantica and Celestia will want access,” she said. “Maybe even Warspite will want a copy.”“What for? I mean, I know clearing the area is helpful, but at the end of the day, it’s just a brick you drop into a contaminated area to clean up. They must have similar equipment already,” I said.

“Not in such a compact package. I know a lot of people that’ll want to mount one of these systems in their boat,” Mako replied. “If it was integrated into the hull, you wouldn’t even need to deploy it; The system would just clear the area around the boat.”“Is that helpful?” I asked, as I glanced out the nearest window. The snake-heads had stopped bombarding my position, so I wanted to make sure nothing had happened. It turned out that our friends had just destroyed all the heads simultaneously, and it was recovering. 

“Of course it’s helpful!” Mako exclaimed. “If it was mounted on a ship as it patrolled the area, they’d be able to remove the surface contaminant from a wide area. All it would take is a couple passes, and they’d probably clear up enough of the chaff above us to clear up our comms!”

“Yeah, well, that might be true. However, half of our support fleet was destroyed in the earlier explosion, so I would hesitate to ask anyone to do that. Many of those that survived were heavily damaged, and there’s a chance either the Snake-heads or something else might attempt to sink them,” I replied.

“That’s because most of the ships that were caught in the explosion were support and fast response vessels, because those were the only ones that could get into the area fast enough to join the fight. The mainline samurai warships probably would have shrugged off that explosion with only minimal damage,” Mako said,

“If you say so,” I muttered. “I don’t think the mainline warships would want to install something like this.”“Not all of them,” Mako conceded, “but I’m confident that enough will recognize how useful this is to want at least one system on board. Can I have a blanket permission to share the catalogs with other samurai in the area for the next… say hour?”

“Nyx?” I whispered to prompt my AI.

It’s unconventional, but the other AI and I can daisy chain permissions. I’ll be keeping track of everyone to ensure that access to your catalogs isn’t abused, Nyx said. 

“Who would abuse access to my catalogs? We’re in the middle of a battle,” I grumbled.

Not everyone is as honest as you, Nyx replied

“Well?” Mako asked, pulling me out of the side conversation.

“Fine. If you think it’ll help, go right ahead,” I said, glancing out the window again. 

“You won’t regret this,” Mako exclaimed as she jetted away leaving a stream of bubbles behind her.

“As long as it helps our current situation, go nuts,” I muttered, sliding open one of the murder holes and aiming at one of the regenerating snake-heads. “I hope it helps. I don’t want to be sitting here suppressing these assholes forever.”