TBoB - Chapter 9 - The Return (Patreon)

So, before anyone mentions it... Yes, I know I missed eight. About half way through this chapter I realized that I hadn't gone through the whole 'fix the implant and buy new stuff' stage which was promised yesterday. Don't know why my brain skipped ahead like that, but since I was already deep into this chapter, I decided to finish it. I'll go back and add eight back in on Thursday. Sorry about that!“Damn, you really did a number on this place, didn’t you?” Sharron chuckled as we stepped off the Kodiak.

“I didn’t do a number on this place, the Antithesis did a number on this place,” I muttered. 

“I’m pretty sure that the Antithesis didn’t leave those massive carbon spikes embedded in the ground, or the massive blast craters,” Dusty said as he strolled down the ramp behind us.

I turned on the bear, eyes narrowed. “I wouldn’t have needed to fire those carbon spikes, or blast holes in the countryside if the Antithesis hadn’t been sieging the walls on a near hourly basis,” I growled. “Who’s side are you on?”“I’m on the side of the truth!” Dusty declared, giving me a lopsided grin before hopping back out of range before I could clobber him.

“Speaking of the carbon spikes… why are they still out there? I thought I ordered the salvage rigs to come and deconstruct everything?” I asked.

“You did, and they have been,” Dusty replied. “However, the rigs are some of our slowest vehicles, and they needed to run all the way back to the Stratocarrier in order to drop off their payloads, so the cleanup process has been progressing far slower than any of us would like.”“Well, if they haven’t been breaking down the Shatterstorm rounds, what have they been breaking down?” I asked.

“The mine field. Which I understand was a long and difficult progress because they didn’t have the ability to remotely disarm the mines, and unless they completely disassembled the central device it would just reassemble the remote explosives,” Dusty explained. 

“Did things really get so bad that you had to resort to installing an infinitely spawning minefield?” Sharron asked.

“Yes,” I grumbled. “I expect things up on Mars were much worse than they were here, but we only had three samurai to hold this town, and even though my bears are good against hordes, they’re not great against elites. We needed to pull out all the stops, and even then, it was barely enough. That entire battle was a blur, so I guess I kind of forgot a couple of the things I put into place.” 

“You forgot that you put self replicating mines all over the battlefield?” Sharron asked.

“There was a lot going on,” I replied defensively. “Thankfully, Dusty and the others are keeping track of shit like that so we don’t have to worry about anyone getting hurt.”

“I honestly don’t know how you managed to get this far sometimes,” Sharron sighed.

“Me either,” I admitted. “Yet here I am. Come on, the others are expecting us; I’ll introduce you.”I wandered towards the town gate, being careful to watch where I was stepping, but stopped after a couple steps to stare at the wall panel just left of the gate. Sometime during the battle one of the Antithesis goliaths must have managed to ram it, because the middle had crumpled so badly I was surprised that the Antithesis hadn’t managed to squeeze underneath. 

“Uhhh… maybe we shouldn’t worry about recovering the entire wall,” I said. “I was wondering if we were going to have enough room to store them all, but I think we should break a lot of them down if they took that much damage.”“What did that?” Sharron asked.

“Fuck if I know,” I replied. “Something the Gene Tender looked up. Probably one of the big, flat shield centipede things. Tough fuckers that stood over the smaller models to defend them, but packed a nasty punch if they were allowed to get up to speed. One of them messed up Bob when he tried to stop it, so that should give you a general idea of how powerful they were.”

“Sounds like you had fun,” Sharron chuckled. 

“That’s one way to put the horrifying and neverending siege,” I muttered before continuing my way towards the gate.

When I got there I found a couple squads of bears backed up by a couple PMC tanks. I saw a couple of the PMC members come over to check who was coming in, but they backed off the instant they saw it was me.

“So… which way to your friends?” Sharron asked.

“Well, Wild said she’d be in her ‘lab’ and Mudflap said he’d pop-in once we arrived in town. He’s probably out patrolling on his bike,” I explained. 

“I thought you said there were five of you that cooperated to take down the hive,” Sharron said. “What about the other two?”“Oh, Dial-up and Lag? They’re those fucking titanic tanks parked out where the hive used to be,” I said, throwing a thumb over my shoulder. 

“Don’t you mean they’re in…”

“No,” I said, interrupting Sharron before she could finish. “They’re literally hardwired into those fucking things. From what I understand they spend the majority of their time on the Mesh, so they didn’t see the need to hold onto their bodies anymore. I’m not sure how busy they are, but they might remote in by hologram to say hello.”

“And where exactly is her lab?” Sharron asked. “I assume it must be somewhere near the town’s core, since this area’s been trashed and burned to shit.”“You’d think that, but no,” I replied, climbing up the rubble next to the road. “This way.”

We worked our way through the ruined buildings until we came across a crude, but paved, tunnel heading down under the wall. I paused for a moment, making sure that no vehicles were coming in or out, then hopped off the side of the ramp and descended into the tunnel system.

I’d kind of expected to find Wild using the same set of rough tunnels and antichambers she’d been using during the siege; However, when I hit the bottom of the ramp I was surprised to find a series of mini biodomes, and hydroponics bays lined up neatly on each side of a heavily reinforced section of tunnel. 

“Huh…” I muttered. “Someone’s been redecorating.

“Is this not what you were expecting?” Sharron asked as she hopped down next to me.

“Well, no. Last time I was here Wild was just growing shit on the side of the tunnel walls,” I replied.

“If that’s the case, why did you call it a lab?” Sharron asked. “Wouldn’t it just be a grotto?”“What? No? It was a place where science was being performed, so I called it the lab. What the fuck is a grotto?” I muttered.

“We really need to work on your vocabulary boss,” Dusty called as ran towards the entrance to the ramp. “Even Issi knows the definition of Grotto.”

“Well, I don’t sit in on every single one of the kid’s classes you know. I have other things to do,” I grumbled as I wandered forward, looking into each of the massive glass walled rooms as I went. “So, from what I understand, Wild should be here somewhere. I just didn’t expect her to have developed this huge complex while I was gone.”“Why not? I needed something to do with the absolutely monumental number of points I earned during the siege,” a familiar voice said. I turned to find Wild emerging from a door across the hall, a wide smile on her face. 

“Uhhh… you get a new uniform to go with your new digs?” I asked hesitantly. “This new one seems a lot more… form fitting than your last one. And alive.”

She laughed, and held up her arm, and as she did a set of vines unwound from the fabric of her suit and danced about. “That’s because it’s not just a suit, it’s a symbiotic plant based lifeform. Although I did my part during the siege, I felt like I was on the backline too much. Now I can implement a lot of the things I learned during that time on the bioform, and feel confident closer to the front line.” 

“You know, you don’t have to be on the front line. It’s not for everyone,” I said.

“I know, but I also know that Mud and I have a problem around here in the future, we can’t always rely upon another samurai to be around and have our backs. I want to be ready when that happens,” she explained.

“I don’t think you have to worry, what we experienced was extremely abnormal, and after everything we went through you and Mud will be able to handle any conventional incursion with ease,” I said.

“I hope so,” she laughed, before pivoting on the spot and sauntering further down the corridor and gesturing to us over her shoulder. “Come on, there are a couple people waiting for me in the lounge, and I’d love to introduce you.”