TBoB - Book 8 - Chapter 12 - Being Social (Patreon)

We ended up chatting for close to an hour without any sign of Mudflap, or any of the other samurai showing up, and I probably would have continued for a while longer if I hadn’t been interrupted by a call across the command network.

[Hey boss, we’ve got a little bit of a problem out here,] Bandit said.

[With what?] I asked.

[Well, I was inspecting the panels to see which ones we could salvage, and which ones we’d need to recycle, and I found a wee bit of a problem.] 

[Where are you?] I asked.

[About ten panels up from the southern most corner of our frontline,] Bandit replied.

[... you know you could have just given me coordinates instead of those esoteric instructions? It took me a couple seconds to figure out where you were talking about, even with my processing boosts,] I grumbled.

[I didn’t think it was that complex,] Bandit sniffed. [So do you want to take a look, or just have me send you a report?]

[I’ll be there in a couple minutes. See you soon,] I grumbled before pushing myself to my feet and cutting the line. 

Sharron looked over and raised an eyebrow. “Is something the matter?” she asked.

“Apparently Bandit found a problem with the wall and wants me to take a look,” I explained before turning towards my host. “Alice, thank you for inviting me to your little hideaway, I enjoyed myself. Hopefully we’ll find some time to do this again before I leave, maybe with Mud.”“Yeah, he and I are going to have words the next time I see him. He better have a good reason for disappearing,” she grumbled. 

“And Oggy, it was nice meeting you,” I said, turning to the other woman. “Feel free to drop by the stratocarrier later. I’ll give you a tour if I have time, and if not I’ll ask Dusty or one of the others to show you around until I can arrive.”

“Do you need any help?” Sharron asked. “I could come with you.”“Naw, it didn’t sound all that critical,” I said. “Feel free to stay here and relax. If I need your help I can always send you a quick message.”

“Alright, if you insist,” she replied as she relaxed and sank back down into the plush chair she was sitting in. “I’ll see you in a couple hours.”

“Take care of yourselves,” I said, waving to everyone before heading to the door. 

As I stepped outside Dusty and Bob came jogging out behind me. 

“I really don’t think I needed to follow you today, that was a little awkward,” Dusty muttered.

“Only because you slunk off to the corner and didn’t talk to anyone,” I said, looking over at the bear. “You know you’re welcome to participate in social activities like that, with or without me being present, right? You’re more than some faceless cog in the machine, you have your own thoughts and feelings, and you’re welcome to express them.”

“I… didn’t think it would be appropriate,” Dusty muttered. 

“Why not? Because you’re not a samurai? Who cares! My friends and I don’t look down on people, or bears, because they’re not samurai. I’m sure no one would have had a problem with you participating in the discussion, as long as you were polite. Besides, you participated in the defense just like Alice and I did, be confident in yourself and proud of your accomplishments,” I said, patting the bear on the back.

“Proud of myself, huh?” he muttered. 

“Of course! You’re really good at your job!” Bob exclaimed. “Remember when you ran over all those Antithesis in the Mauler?”

“I ran over a lot of Antithesis in the Mauler Bob,” the smaller bear muttered. 

“I know! That’s how good you were at driving,” Bob grinned.

“Anyway,” I said loudly, trying to keep the conversation from going too far off the rails. “I’m not saying you have to be a social butterfly, but if you want to go out and meet people, go for it. A little confidence goes a long way.”“I’ll keep that in mind,” Dusty replied thoughtfully.

“Good. I’d like to see you all spread your wings and try new things, you’re more than my… assistants? Sidekicks?” I said uncertainly.

“I think the PMCs typically use the term Adjunct,” Dusty said.

“Adjunct then. You guys are like family, so go out and do your own thing,” I said as we strolled out of the tunnel. 

My personal Kodiak had already repositioned and was waiting for us at the top of the ramp so I strolled right into the back and waited until Bob and Dusty joined me before slamming the close door button and ordering the pilot to take off.

“So, why were you concerned about me standing to the side, and not Bob?” Dusty asked. 

“Because Bob doesn’t have problems being outgoing. In fact when we’re back home at the shelter I usually have trouble keeping track of him because he’s always out wandering the neighbourhood and talking with everyone,” I said. “I’m sure he knows the people in Sector Eleven better than anyone else at this point.” 

“That’s how I learn all the best gossip,” Bob said, leaning over to Dusty and whispering loudly enough that I could hear it. 

I rolled my eyes. “At this point I’m not sure I could stop him from going out to chat with people, even if I wanted to.” 

“It’s best not to try,” Bob agreed. 

I shook my head and grabbed one of the support rails above the bench seats just as the Kodiak banked, and began to descend. “Anyway,” I said trying to ignore Bob. “If you do decide to expand your horizons then I suggest talking to Deadbeat, I’m sure she can help you.”

“I’ll do that,” Dusty said.

I waited until I felt the familiar shudder that indicated the Kodiak had set down before heading over to the door and slamming the button, revealing Bandit and Deadbeat standing next to what appeared to be an utterly unremarkable section of wall. 

“I thought you said there was a problem,” I said loudly as I jumped out of the Kodiak and started heading towards the pair. “Everything seems fine here.”“Yeah, well, looks can be deceiving,” Bandit muttered. “Check the bottom of the wall.”

“Oooookkkaaaayyyy…” I muttered. I wandered up and crouched down next to them and once I did I finally noticed something odd. “What the fuck is this?” I grumbled, jamming my finger against the distorted metal. “It looks like the wall melted slightly.”

“It did,” Deadbeat said. “And it’s not the only one. We’re ten panels in and I’ve seen four other sections with similar damage.”

“What the fuck happened?” I asked.

“If I had to guess, it was caused by all the acid the Antithesis were throwing around,” Deadbeat replied.

“If that was true then the entire wall would be a droopy mess,” I said.

“Not if the acid needed a catalyst to change into something that could melt metal,” she said. “I suspect it might have been the phage. I’m still sorting through the combat logs to try and find the bears that were stationed near this wall section to verify.”

“Wonderful, why didn’t anything else melt?” I asked.

“Probably because you had the Badgers start burning that shit back as soon as you saw how close it got,” Bandit said. “They might have suffered similar damage, however their self repair would have countered the effect of the acid, at least at low concentrations. We actually got off pretty light, all things considered.”“Well, from what I can tell the panels are only slightly warped,” I said. “I don’t know why this was such a big deal.”

“Because they’re more than warped,” Deadbeat grumbled, before grabbing an entrentching tool that was laying nearby. She jammed it into the dirt next to the wall causing a metallic ‘clang’. “The wall and the surrounding terrain have melted together. After digging around I’ve been able to determine the metal has leached down several inches. I don’t think we can get it out without heavy machinery, or a molecular disassembler.”“And how much of the wall is like this?” I asked. 

“Based upon what we’ve seen, maybe thirty to fourty percent,” Bandit said.

“Of course it is,” I grumbled. “You know the funny thing about this? I just told Wild that leaving the wall in place wasn’t a good idea, because it wasn’t as stable as a more permanent emplacement.”

“Looks fairly permanent now,” Dusty grunted. “What do you want to do about this?”

I poked the ground a couple times, then sighed. “Let me think about it,” I said, before rising to my feet. “Better get comfortable everyone, looks like our layover is going to be longer than we expected.”