TBoB - Book 8 - Chapter 5 - Reunion (Patreon)

“Boss, we’re back!” Bob yelled excitedly as he swept me up in a massive hug. “Did you miss us?”“Bob…” I muttered quietly. 

“Yes, Boss?” “Can’t breathe,” I just barely managed to wheeze out. 

The big bear loosened his grip and slowly lowered me to the ground before stepping back and giving me a sheepish smile. “Sorry.”I leaned forward and took a couple long breaths in before standing up straight and looking up at Bob’s face. “It’s fine. Thankfully my bionics make my body resilient to take it. Just be careful in the future, not everyone can take the full brunt of your love. Try to rein it in a little.”

“Can do!” Bob replied excitedly, throwing me a salute. 

I took a step to the side, so I could look past the massive black bear at the small group following just behind him. “You guys look a little worn out,” I said. “Are you okay?”“We were until we got on the Kodiak to come home,” Bandit sighed. “It was like sharing the back of the transport with a two-thousand-pound hyperactive puppy.”

“I’m not that bad,” Bob muttered.

“Usually that’s true, but you’ve been acting super anxious ever since you heard about what the Gene Tender did to the boss,” Deadbeat grumbled. “I haven’t seen you sit still in days.”“Hey! You were all as anxious as I was,” Bob pouted. 

“Well, that’s true,” Dusty said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Not that Deadbeat would ever admit it.”

“Admit what? I knew the boss could handle it. I wasn’t worried for a moment,” she huffed, looking away.

I smiled and walked over to where my team was standing and placed a hand on Deadbeat’s head. “Well, I missed you all too; I had a fucking terrible time trying to manage everything without you,” I said, rubbing her head. “Still, I’m glad you were in position to intercept that symbiote the Gene Tender sent out before it died. I really didn’t want to have to participate in another fucking bug-plant-thing hunt after chasing the Tender down twice.”

“Hey, it was no problem. We were already out there hunting hives because you thought the Gene Tender might try to flee back to the coast anyways,” Bandit said. “Although it was a little bit of a slog, it turned out well in the end.”

“That’s true…” Dusty muttered. “But the next time you want us to comb an entire mountain range, it might be a good idea to provide us with better equipment. The Foxes are really good at hunting the Antithesis down, but the process is pretty slow when we have to stop every hundred feet to inspect the area.” 

“Yeah, that was a massive oversight on my part,” I admitted. “I was focused on hunting down the Gene Tender at that time, and really didn’t put that much thought into streamlining the process. How scattered are the forces you took into the mountains?” I asked.

“They were fairly spread out, but since every squad was assigned a Kodiak, there’s no need to go out looking for them; they’ll slowly trickle in over the next hour or so,” Deadbeat said.

“And what about the bots we left in Great Falls? How are they doing?” I asked.

Dusty shrugged. “They’re just sitting around, for the most part. We made sure to provide support to anyone who needed it, but with so many samurai running around, the troops were pretty much relegated to holding the city walls,” he said.

“That’s not entirely true… the Badgers were occasionally used to scour tunnel systems to make sure there weren’t any Antithesis spores around,” Bandit said.

“Yeah, but even then there were a couple samurai who were willing to do that job themselves, so that was rare,” Deadbeat added. 

“It’s fine,” I told everyone. “I left our forces there to protect the town, not farm points. If the other samurai didn’t want help, that’s their prerogative.” 

“Soooo…” Dusty said hesitantly. “How’s Heavy doing?”“Didn’t you receive my updates across the command network?” I asked, surprised. “You guys are always after me because I forget to check my messages.” 

“Oh, we did,” Bandit said. “However, reading a text update and hearing about his status in person are two different things.”“Well, his frame has been completely rebuilt, and the beavers finished transferring his memories into the shell. However, the beavers told me he should have as many people, or bears, that he cared about when he came online in order to give him the best chance of making a full recovery, so I decided to wait for all you,” I explained. “He’s sitting in the manufacturing area if you want to go see him.”“When are you planning on rebooting him?” Deadbeat asked. 

“I was thinking about once the recon force is back on board,” I replied. “I don’t want anyone to be distracted with logistical tasks when we wake him, he deserves our full attention, and if we wait until we load the troops around Great Falls it could take days to get to it. Best to take advantage of the small break we have between getting the two forces settled.”“You know, we are capible of managing the troops, and visiting Heavy at the same time, right? We do it all the time,” Deadbeat said.

“I’m aware… I just feel like he deserves our full attention,” I said. 

“That’s fair,” Dusty said. “I’d like to think you guys would do the same for me.”“I’d absolutely do the same for any of you,” I declared. “You guys are like family to me.”“Awwww… boss, that’s so sweet,” Bob declared, throwing an arm over my shoulder before pulling me in for a sideways hug.

“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered. “Well, don’t get used to hearing the mushy stuff. I have a reputation to maintain. You guys do deserve to hear it, at least occasionally. You’re important to me.”

Dusty threw his arms around my abdomen in an awkward hug. “You’re important to us too, boss.”

I patted the bear on the head awkwardly for a minute, until I started to feel a little uncomfortable with everyone staring at me and smirking.

“Alright, that’s enough,” I said gruffly, stepping back. “It’s good to have you all back, but we still have work to do. We still need to get the recon team back on board, and settled, before we hold the ceremony. Let’s concentrate on getting that done.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve got it,” Bandit declared. “It’s not like we’re monitoring several dozen teams as they search the area, and giving them orders in real time, all I need to do is make sure the Kodiak pilots are heading in the right direction.” 

“And they don’t crash,” Dusty added. I raised an eyebrow and looked down at the little bear. “After driving the Mauler I’ve become painfully aware of how simple our drivers act when not under direct control,” he said. “It’s actually a miracle they haven’t driven into anything before.”“I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them slam into the Antithesis before,” I said. “Does that count?” 

“it depends if they meant to do it or not. Based upon their AI settings, I say there’s a fifty-fifty chance that it was unintentional,” Dusty grumbled.  

“Well, I’ve got good news for you. After all the trouble I went through in the pacific I decided to prioritize getting you guys some backup; More Class III helpers. You’ll have to wait until things calm down though.”“Hey, any help is good help!” Bandit declared. 

“Yeah, we appreciate it, but there’s no rush,” Dusty added. “We know there’s a lot going on.”“Speaking of which…” Deadbeat said, cutting in. “Would you mind if we wandered over to take a look at Heavy now? I know he’s probably in perfect shape, but I’d still like to see him.”

“Absolutely,” I replied, attempting to throw my arm around Bob, just like he’d done to me, and completely failing. Somehow I managed to keep the frown off my face. “Let’s start heading over, and you guys can fill me in on what I missed after I left.”“I hope you’ve got a lot of time on your hands, because we were surprisingly busy after you left,” Bandit said.

I smiled. “For you guys, I have all the time in the world.”