TBoB - Book 7 - Chapter 73 - Open Fire! (Patreon)

So... I already know what people are going to ask: Why didn't Teddy do that before? And I promise, I do have a reason for that which will be brought up shortly after teh battle ends. Be patient.I brought my weapon up and emptied the entire magazine into the swirling mass of Antithesis flesh. Unfortunately, even though my micro munitions should have been strong enough to bring down a Twenty-Eight, the rounds didn’t seem to penetrate the swarm.

In fact, it seemed like everyone’s attacks were either being absorbed or deflected by the mass of flesh swirling around in front of us. Even Sharron’s lasers, which had been cleaved through hordes up on Mars, couldn’t penetrate the Antithesis which surrounded the Gene Tender. The fucking thing must have tinkered with one or more of the models making up the living shield, enhancing their resilience to the point where they could actually take a hit. 

“All these little tricks are starting to piss me off,” I hissed as I grappled towards Heavy. “Just roll over and die already.”

“I assume that you’re not talking to me,” Heavy said once I got close enough. 

“No, of course not. I’m talking about the Gene Tender,” I growled. “I haven’t seen you fire the missiles since I arrived. Have you tried firing a simultaneous volley into the side of the swarm?”

“Of course I did; it was the first thing I tried,” Heavy grumbled. “As soon as the moose raised the launchers, smaller swarms detached from the central swarm in order to intercept the projectiles. One group even got close enough to swim right down a launch tube while the moose was firing it,” he said, gesturing to a bot lying nearby with one side of its head blown open. “As you can see, the effect was devastating. I’ve been trying to sneak a shot through every once in a while, but they’ve all been intercepted.”

As we talked, the swarm parted for a quarter of a second. It wasn’t enough time for me to bring my weapon to bear, but it was long enough for me to get a glimpse at the entity hiding within the swarm. I swear our eyes met for a moment before the monster launched a heavy bone spike out of its mouth, shattering the face plate of one of the moose before lodging deep within the bot’s processing core. Then, before any of us could react, the Tender disappeared into its protective envelope again.

“Motherfucker! Don’t make me come in there!” I shouted. 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Sharron yelled. “That spike launcher it’s got is something else; A couple of the shots it landed on me actually compromised my armour. Only Model Thirties and above have managed that before.”“Yeah, yeah, I’ve experienced it before,” I growled. “Any idea on how we can get through its defences?”“I don’t know… there’s something in there strong enough to block my lasers. I think I’ve caught sight of something that looks like an armoured sunfish floating around the inner perimeter, keeping pace with me, and Mako’s harpoons are getting intercepted before they can penetrate,” she replied.

“What about your cannon?” I asked. “I’ve seen that thing rip through hordes before.”

“I’m experiencing the same problem that Mako is with her harpoons,” she replied. “As soon as the rounds enter the swarm, they hit something hard enough to cause them to detonate, and the Antithesis recover before I can fire a follow up shot.”

“I take it you haven’t been able to get through to Warspite? He could probably finish this fucking thing off with a single barrage,” I said.

“We’ve tried, but despite the purifiers on the Redemption running full bore, comms are exceptionally spotty. Besides, it seems like he’s a little occupied right now,” she replied. “What we need is something powerful enough to fire straight through the defensive cover without being stopped.”

“The good news is, I have those. Available in a variety of calibres,” I said. “The bad news is ninety-plus percent of them don’t work underwater!”“What about the other ten percent?” Sharron asked.

I paused. “Gimme a second,” I muttered. 

[Spooky, are you there? What’s the status of the marsupial?] I asked through the command network.

[The connections a little spotty, but I’m here, boss. Marsupial’s main drive and about forty percent of the maneuvering jets have been destroyed. The left-side missile array was caved in, and it has twenty-seven hull breaches,] the bear reported.

[I didn’t hear anything about the Hyper Velocity cannon,] I said. [Is it active?]

[Theoretically. We may be able to fire it once before the power system burns out,] Spooky replied.

[In that case, launch it; I need…] I started to reply when Heavy came out of nowhere and tackled me to the ground. 

I watched the next few seconds go by almost like it was in slow motion, unable to do anything as a spike shot right through the area I’d been standing, impacting Heavy in the top of the head, and sending him tumbling away.

[Boss, what just happened?] Spooky asked quietly. [I lost Heavy’s signal.]

I reached out towards Heavy in disbelief, my hand shaking. He stared at me with empty eyes, the spike protruding from what was left of his head, taunting me. 

[Heavy’s down. He took a shot meant for me. Send an engineering team down to recover him, right now!] I muttered, before clenching my fist and turning towards the Tender. [As launch the Marsupial, and bombard the Tender’s location with the Hyper Velocity cannon until we can confirm it’s dead. I don’t care what it takes, or even if we loose the ship to malfunctions, I want you to keep that thing firing until the Tender is DEAD.No! You know what, that’s not good enough. Hit it with everything that doesn’t have a blast radius large enough to take out the surrounding samurai. I don’t care how ineffective they may be, or how much power they’ll lose. I want that thing dead!] I snarled.

[Roger,] Spooky replied. [Stand-by for bombardment.]

To his credit, Spooky didn’t question the order; he just immediately opened fire. Unlike the Retribution’s earlier bombardment, Bear Force One’s wasn’t accompanied by light flashes or huge explosions. Instead, the ocean above us began to bubble, almost like it was being boiled, as thousands of projectiles were poured into the ocean. 

We were deep enough that the tertiary turrets, which, while small were enough to punch through at Twenty-Eight, couldn’t penetrate deep enough to do damage. The Shard cannons, on the other hand, had no problem. 

Even though they lost a lot of momentum, by the time they reached our depth, they couldn’t be travelling much faster than a standard shotgun pellet; each one was several inches long and unnaturally sharp. One would have been dangerous enough to a standard Antithesis, but the Shard Cannons fired so fast that hundreds hit the water before the first wave reached the Antithesis.

The shards absolutely shredded the basic Antithesis within seconds, ripping through the Model Ones and impaling the Model Threes.

As its outer layer of protection fell away, I got a look at what the Tender had behind it. There were several massive fish like Antithesis, each taller than I was, that appeared to be little more than floating armour plates, as well as several dozen Model Ones that seemed to have exoskeletons, giving them an almost skeletal appearance. 

There seemed to be several of the large armoured Antithesis, each assigned to Macy, Sharron and I, constantly following our movements and moving to stay between the Tender and us. There probably had been a ring of them originally; however, a large number seemed to have ascended and turned sideways to create a protective umbrella above the Tender.

For a moment it seemed like the Tender’s defences might hold. Then the UHRs fired.  

The twin-linked Railgun slugs turned red hot, boiling the nearby water as they bled momentum on the way down. By the end, they were travelling slowly enough to leave a slight red streak of an afterimage in my vision. 

It was the closest I’d ever been to seeing the shells after they’d been fired, and even though they’d lost some of their destructive potential, they still struck with enough force to send shockwaves out.

Several of the armoured Antithesis outright exploded from the impact, and one of the shells actually penetrated the defensive dome, just barely missing the Tender before embedding itself in the ocean floor. 

For the first time since I arrived, the Antithesis’ formation wavered; several more of the plates broke away from the perimeter and floated to the top in order to protect the Tender from a second barrage.

I saw Macy pull a number of quick, unpredictable turns, zipping back and forth to confuse the remaining defensive Antithesis near her before lunging outwards, beyond their reach and throwing a harpoon straight through a gap in their defences.

I didn’t see the weapon strike, but the surrounding Antithesis all shuddered for a moment before resuming their defensive maneuvers, their movements just a little bit sharper.

I raised my weapon and began circling the defensive perimeter. It seemed like the first blow had been struck, now it was only a matter of time.