TBoB - Book 7 - Chapter 72 - On the Move (Patreon)

“The Tender is on the move!” I exclaimed as soon as I got Heavy’s message. “Heavy spotted it trying to slip away within the torrent of other Antithesis pouring out of the hive.”

“Where?” Mako asked excitedly. 

“The North-East side,” I replied, checking Heavy’s telemetry. “Almost directly below the Retribution.”“That’s on the opposite side of the hive from us,” Sharron muttered. “Even if we fight our way through the swarm emerging from the central mass, there’s a chance it might be able to slip away before we arrive.”

“The fucking thing must have seen us coming and tried to slip out the back way,” I hissed, leaning forward and attempting to rub my brow in frustration. At least until I remembered I had a helmet on. I thought about it for a millisecond, using the command network to help accelerate my thoughts, then looked back at my friends. “While Depthcharge and I have to make our way there on foot, you two,” I said, gesturing to Sharron and Mako, “are agile enough that you can probably find a way around the majority of the swarm and back up Heavy before the Tender gets away.”

“Then what are you two going to do?” Mako asked.

“We’ll follow behind and try to catch up before the fight ends. If you manage to kill the fucking thing before we arrive, the two of us can redirect and make our way deeper into the hive. Killing the Tender has to be our number one priority, but we also need to make sure we wipe this hive off the face of the earth afterwards. Who knows what bullshit the Tender cooked up inside,” I said, before shaking my head. “Anyways, this isn’t the right time to ask questions, or have a discussion. Go before that fucking thing slips away again!”

The two of them nodded at me before shooting towards the far side of the hive and effortlessly swooping past the few Antithesis that tried to intercept them.

“I hope they’ll be able to deal with that thing,” Depthcharge muttered as we watched them disappear behind the hive.

“They’ll be fine. Sharron has faced Gene Tenders before and Mako… has her boundless enthusiasm,” I said, drawing a glance from Depthcharge. “I’ll be honest, I’m more concerned with our position. Although I doubt all those low-level Antithesis pouring out of the hive will be able to hurt us very easily, I don’t think we have the firepower to push directly through the middle. We’ll just get bogged down by the sheer weight of numbers. We could take the long way around, but I don’t know if Warspite managed to finish off that fucking Snake-Head fucker, and if we take too long it might regenerate and come after me again,” I explained, before turning to look at the big man. “How do you want to handle this?”

“Are you telling me that you don’t have something that could just level this entire place on your ship?” Depthcharge asked. 

“Well, I do, but they’re not exactly what I’d call precision weapons. I’ll be honest, I considered having Heavy call in a missile strike instead of calling in reinforcements when I sent him off, but I figured we’d want to confirm the Gene Tender was here, instead of just wondering if it got away again or not, and I was a little concerned that if I fired on the hive the detonation might have been large enough to damage the Retribution,” I explained.

“You’re exaggerating,” Depthcharge said.

“I’m not,” I replied, shaking my head. “I don’t have access to a lot of the more esoteric explosives other people do, so my second in command would probably default to high-yield explosive payloads to level the hive, and from what I’ve seen that’d cause a massive fucking shockwave. Although it probably wouldn’t do that much damage to the Retribution, I didn’t want to take that chance.”“You don’t have anything else to deal with this mess?” he asked.

“I wish I did. I specialize in two things: bears and coil guns, and neither of them are particularly well suited for aquatic combat. The bears sink like stones, and even though the coil guns can fire straight through a Model Twenty-Eight on the surface, they lose a significant amount of momentum when fired underwater,” I replied. “My weapons and forces just aren’t well suited for aquatic combat.”“Well, if you don’t have any more tricks, then I think we should try and skirt the edge of the hive. I want to join the fight as quickly as possible, and as long as we avoid the largest groups of Antithesis, we shouldn’t get bogged down too badly,” Depthcharge said. “My biggest weakness is my lack of mobility, so the farther we venture, the longer it’s going to take to get into the fight.”“Right, that makes sense,” I muttered. “In that case, I’ll let you choose the path. Lead the way.” 

The big man nodded and immediately started striding towards the hive. Even though his steps appeared to be slow and methodical, he travelled at a surprisingly quick pace. 

Not only did he appear to be completely unaffected by the drag which had been the bane of my existence, but he was also nearly twice my height, which meant that his easy strides took him twice as far as mine. 

It didn’t take me long to realize that if I didn’t do something, I would be left behind, so I began using the grapple to perform a series of micro hops. I’d zip out a couple of feet in front of Depthcharge, wait until he passed me, then repeat the process. It wasn’t the most elegant travel method I’d ever used, but it worked. 

It seemed to take the Antithesis a surprisingly long time to realize that we were there, and even when they did detect us, only a fraction of the Models pouring out of the nearest burrows turned to engage us. Although Depthcharge initially turned to engage these intermittent attacks, we quickly realized that I could easily dispatch them with a quick burst of my HCARs, which allowed Depthcharge focus on making as much progress towards the battle as possible.

At first, I thought the Antithesis which were ignoring us were just rising to the surface, so they continue their attack on the Retribution, however, once we got closer and I could see through the oily water, I noticed that they’d rise just above the surrounding terrain, then immediately turn to the North West. Towards the fight.“That’s probably not a good sign,” I muttered.

“No, no it’s not,” Depthcharge replied. “You should go ahead and help the others. I doubt those small fry could do much to hurt them, but if the Gene Tender is trying to use them to create a distraction and escape you should use that grappling hook of yours to go head and back them up.”

“I could do that, but what about you?” I asked.

“It’s obvious that the Antithesis have no interest in actually trying to stop us from approaching the battle, just slow us down, and even if they did and attack me unmass, I’m not worried. That snake-head couldn’t scratch my armour, what are these ankle biters supposed to do?” he said. “You may not be as manuverable as Mako and Humboldt with that grapple of yours, but you can clear up the screening Antithesis fast enough. You’re better of going on ahead than waiting here with me.”

“It’s hard to disagree with you when I made the exact same argument to Humboldt and Mako not even five minutes ago,” I said. “So I guess I’ll be going on ahead. Stay safe, I’ll see you in a couple minutes.”

“Good luck,” Depthcharge muttered as I turned and fired my grapple at the nearest piece of debris. 

Even though I knew how strong the grapple was, and I’d braced myself for the extreme acceleration, I still felt like my shoulder was being ripped from it’s socket when I engaged it at full power. As soon as I got close to the anchor I disengaged it and let the momentum carry me passed the anchor point before aiming at another nearby piece of debris and zipping off again.

“I can’t wait to try this thing without all this fucking water around,” I muttered. “I bet I’d actually enjoy the experience.”

If you plan to continue using the grapple after the current campaign I suggest you get as much practice in underwater as you can, Nyx suggested.

“Why would I do that? Every time I engage it down here, the drag makes my head snap back and makes it feel like I’m going to rip my arm out of my socket,” I grumbled. “Shit like that makes it hard to practice.”That drag is also keeping you at a fairly reasonable speed. If you activated the grapple at that strength on the surface it would propel you forward at two to three times the speed. Smashing into an obstacle at that speed would result in several broken bones, or internal damage, even with your upgrades. While the water makes it harder to get around, it also cushions your body and helps prevent you from causing yourself bodily harm if you get a bad grapple. Trust me, you don’t want to make a mistake when it matters. Nyx explained.

“Uhhh… good to know. Maybe it’d pay to do a little more practice before we move on,” I muttered. 

I’m glad you’re willing to see reason, Nyx said. Heads up, you’re coming up on the battle. 

I struggled against the drag, forcing my head forward so I could see the fight. Although a small part of me had hoped that the girls would have been able to bring the fight to a close before I arrived, deep down I knew it wouldn’t be that easy. The Gene Tender had survived both a major siege and a serious bug hunt involving dozens of Samurai. It was a survivor if nothing else.

And now, as I pulled myself up to the fight, I could see the fucking thing didn’t disappoint. 

It seemed to be directing the entire swarm like they were an extension of it’s own body, creating a cloak of flesh that both obscured it’s position and protected it from most incoming damage. Every once in a while a small gap would appear in the coverage, which the Tender would use to launch one of it’s infernal spikes at Sharron, Mako or Heavy and the moose. 

While the girls had managed to avoid getting hit, my troops hadn’t been so lucky. Three of the moose were down with spikes embedded in their heads, and Heavy appeared to be attempting to dislodge one of the oversized projectiles from the side of his weapon.

Mako, Sharron and the remaining Moose were doing their best to cut through the living shield, but for every Antithesis they cut down, two more seemed to take their place. For now, the fight appeared to be in a stalemate.

As my last zip finished, I disconnected the grapple, pulled the HCARS off my back, and let the momentum carry me towards the edge of the fight. “Alright fucker. No more tricks and no more running,” I growled. “Let’s end this here.”