Chương 120: Book 2 - Chapter 38 - Dead Ends

"How fucking expansive is this tunnel system," I mumbled. I was currently sitting on a decommissioned piece of mining equipment, reviewing the area the squirrels had mapped so far. I had ordered them to go wide to try and find out if there were any other nearby tunnel entrances. They were about ten kilometers out in both directions, and still going. No exits yet, but plenty of places where it wouldn't be hard for them to bust through.

"If I'm going to get through this I'll need to bring more squirrels. Truck loads more." While I was investigating, a small group of indents slowly made their way across the yard, spurred on by each other. I forced them to stop mining the polymer and to leave the mine, so the entire group had been just milling around for a couple of minutes now.

"Ummm… Miss Samurai, can you please let us know when we can go back to work? The longer we're off the job, the more we owe the company. A couple of us are getting close to paying off our contracts and we can't afford to stop," the leader, a scrawny man just out of his teens, said. The other two, probably just as skinny as the leader, huddled behind the man.

"You don't," I said with a sigh.

"I've already asked my AI to audit Global's payroll, and prevent them from screwing you over. I can't promise they'll treat you fairly after I leave, but I can protect you while I'm here."

"Really?" One of the followers asked, a girl whose face was practically black with dirt. I couldn't help but wonder if that's how Sharron looked while she was here.

"Yeah, promise," I replied quietly.

"Just stay away from the mine entrance for now, got it?" The entire group nodded emphatically, before running back to their friends. If you wanted, I could completely bankrupt Global Rare-earth and Industrial Mining Corp, or null all their indent contracts right now.

"If the company wasn't keeping this entire town afloat, I'd probably take you up on that offer. Unfortunately, the last thing I need is to try and help this lot, and fuck over absolutely everyone else. Just keep the company honest for now, I'll think about how to help these people while we're here," I replied.

"If I send the truck back to pick up supplies, will it be back before nightfall? I kind of need a secure place for the night." It'll arrive after dark, but not super late. You could call for one of the bear's infantry fighting vehicles instead. It would have a smaller cargo capacity, but be faster. I bit my lip, and thought about it for a moment.

"The ideal solution would be another truck, but I barely have two hundred points left after Bob's upgrade, so I guess I'll have to make do with an IFV. I'll have to set it up to make regular supply runs in order to get enough squirrels up here to map this place sometime this century." With a quick thought, I set the gears in motion back home, packing another squad of bears and as many squirrels as possible into an IFV. Assuming there were no issues, it wouldn't take long for them to arrive.

"Now, tell me about this… polymer? Where the hell did it come from?" It's excreted by the Model Fourteens when they're overfed. It provides both a way to shore up the tunnels and to hide from surveillance.

"Fuck me… they need to overfeed those big, segmented bugs? Wouldn't they need a lot of biomass to coat all those tunnels like that? Like a LOT lot?" Yes, it would require several hundred metric tons of material.

"Shouldn't we be able to detect that much damage from the air? Or, you know, space?" I asked. You would be correct if they used material from the surface. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

"Instead of what? Last I checked, most 'non-surface materials' weren't organic," I said with a frown. You would be correct. Most of Earth's subterranean biosphere is composed of rock. When a hive does not have access to an easy source of biomass, it'll start producing its own. It's slower than mass-harvesting, but safer. It's meant to be a stop gap measure until the hive can locate more mass, but some models have been known to use that method to hide their presence. I let that digest for a moment.

"If they had this source of biomass and didn't want to reveal themselves, then why the fuck did they hit Jasper? They should have stayed hidden or overwhelmed the town with a full tide. Hit and run doesn't make sense." That I cannot tell you. It does not match any of the Antithesis' established patterns.

"Wonderful. Smart enough to hide, stupid enough to attack a town." I sighed.

"Let me know the instant you come up with a reasonable theory." Will do. I received a ping from one of the squirrels, so I stood up and brushed off my pants before pulling up the visual feed. The squirrel in question seemed to be sitting in a hollow space, filled with gnarled roots. At first glance, they appeared to be regular tree roots, but they were thicker than normal, and in a number of places around the perimeter, the roots were noticeably broken, or chewed off.

"Fuck me, didn't expect to find something so quickly," I mumbled. Unfortunately, I do not see any sign of a core root structure beyond these fuel roots. Typically, these are planted near quite advanced hives in order to keep the more advanced models fed even when the surface biomass begins to dry up. This appears to be more of an isolated garden.

"To… provide sustenance to the Fourteens?" I asked suspiciously. Most likely. It's odd that the antithesis haven't stripped it bare, or at least harvested it recently.

"I don't like any of this," I said, narrowing my eyes.

"When the new squirrels arrive, we'll have them start from there." Just before I disconnected, the squirrel was wrenched violently to the side. For just a moment, it caught sight of a Model Three, before the creature surged forward and clamped its jaws upon the bot's head.

"Fuck!" I yelled as the feedback from the severed connection hit me. It took me a moment to shake it off before I started running towards the mine entrance.

"Bob! Gather a squad together; we have confirmed sightings about ten minutes out!" I yelled. The big bear just nodded, and cracked his knuckles in anticipation.

"You lot!" I screamed at the various indents that were sitting around the yard.

"Quickly move out to my truck! Do NOT leave the area. Stay near the bears out there." There was a moment of silence, then everyone scrambled towards the gate. To their credit, they didn't seem to be panicking and formed relatively neat lines while filing outside of the gate. I had half the bears outside carefully help people into the trailer, while the other half fixed a set of laser projectors to what remained of the gate.

Inside the tunnel entrance, Deadbeat and Heavy were busy attaching another set of emitters to the wall, preparing for the inevitable wave. As soon as they were done, I took a position behind one of the nearby furnaces before recalling the nearest squirrels. If the Antithesis were coming, I wanted to know from where and how many. Minutes ticked by as the squirrels got into position, and yet there were no further Antithesis sightings.

The Antithesis should have had more than enough time to flood the mine, but they didn't.

"I don't like this," I mumbled, redirecting the squirrels back towards the hollow. There was some sign of movement, but not of the Antithesis. I put my back against the furnace and sat down, so I could concentrate on the leading squirrel's signal. As it came running into the hollow, I had to double check that it was the right place. The Antithesis was gone, but so were the roots. In less than half an hour, they'd completely consumed the entire root system and vanished.

"Did that fucking thing destroy my bot in order to buy time to destroy the evidence?" I asked in shock. The Antithesis command models have been known to use quite advanced tactics, and maneuvers. It should be no surprise that there's at least one running around, considering the tactics used in Jasper. The fact that it's still hiding and gathering biomass, instead of going on the offensive, is concerning.

"No shit. If it's going to play around, I'm going to drastically increase the number of reinforcements I'm bringing in. Fuck playing games with plants, I'm going hunting."