Chương 147: Book 2 - Chapter 65 - Slash and Burn

"Even though your new lungs should provide limited resistance to the Terror gas, I recommend using your helmet to completely eliminate the effects. Also, you should avoid firing your weapon while out there. Your ribs have not completely fused and the kickback may weaken them and prolong your recovery," Nyx reported through Spooky. I'd always assumed that Nyx was using Spooky's voice when using him to talk, but now that the bear had his own personality, it was obvious that wasn't the case.

I guess Nyx had their own, unique voice they liked to project through the bears. A second later, Spooky slumped slightly and started smacking himself lightly in the side of the head.

"Comrade Nyx, I must protest you using me as a voice box. There are plenty of other bears to use as a voice box, and being suppressed while you do it is highly unsettling," Spooky complained.

"He's got a point, Nyx. Maybe we should get you a robot parrot to speak out of or something," I said as I slipped my helmet on.

"Or maybe you could learn to subvocalize like the rest of us," Sharron grumbled. I turned to her and considered for a moment, "Naw, fuck that," I said as I struck the door control. It stuck for a moment but finally went down after I pounded it a couple more times. Both Kodiaks were messed up on the outside, armor dented or ripped off, and one of them was even missing the turret. I guess it was a good thing the frame was so tough; they still made decent shelters.

As I stepped into the gloom, I could already tell the situation was much better than earlier. The antithesis were still pushing in, but their numbers had been severely depleted. The horde that had once completely filled the cavern had been depleted so severely that the survivors were slowly getting pushed back into a single corner.

On one flank, Arachne's spider drones, which were a lot bigger and scarier than I remembered, were doing a pretty good impression of the Forty-Four and dissolving the front line with constant, pressurized streams of acid. Beside her Plasmalanx was strategically targeting the larger models and firing his weapon at a fairly impressive rate. On the other side, Hoppy was busy bouncing between the larger models, landing long enough to crush a head or limb before catapulting herself to another part of the battle.

"The newbies seem to be doing well," I muttered.

"They should be, considering how many points and tokens they pulled in during this shit," Sharron replied.

"Most samurai need to work for years to earn that much."

"But they DID earn it. Even surviving the shit we put up with today was an accomplishment," I muttered. I watched the ongoing melee with detached interest. After dealing with the Forty-Four, the others were absolutely sweeping through the lower models. Whisperer's giant fire-breathing elephant was back, burning large swaths of the antithesis, Grey was smashing down indiscriminately, and even Bright-Eyes' squirrels were biting their way through the lines.

I had no idea exactly what upgrade she gave them, but it was frightening how fast they brought things down.

"Where are Dreamer and Magpie?" I asked, when I finally realized they were missing.

"Commander! Magpie has commandeered the other Kodiak in order to perform medical aid on Dreamer," Spooky reported.

"She had to lure Dreamer away from the lines with the promise of euphoria-inducing candy," Sharron added.

"What happened to her?" I asked, slightly concerned.

"Cut off her own arm to protect herself from the bacteria, then refused to leave the front line to have it looked at," Sharron said, with a slight frown.

"She also cut off Whisperer's leg, but Whisperer received treatment and headed back out while you were out."

"How long was I out anyway?" I finally asked.

"The situation seems a lot better compared to before."

"It's been exactly one hour, thirty-six minutes, twenty-seven seconds and eighty-six…" Spooky started reporting.

"About an hour and a half," Sharron said, cutting him off.

"The Forty-Four crushed, or melted, a hell of a lot of antithesis with its indiscriminate attacks, and a lot more antithesis died rushing the bear gunline. There hasn't been any more funny business either, so most of the Seventeens probably died in the crossfire somewhere." A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Good, fuck 'em. This whole situation wouldn't have spiraled out of control without their guidance, I hope they died screaming," I muttered.

"The antithesis don't have vocal cords or lungs, Commander," Spooky contributed. I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye.

"Are you going to be this serious from now on?" I asked.

"Command is a serious profession, Commander!" he replied.

"Wonderful," I grumbled.

"Well, I don't need you this instant. How about you go monitor the front lines?"

"I can do that from here, Commander," he said.

"But I can visually inspect the troops and provide you with updates, if you would prefer."

"I do!" I said, "Go! Inspect!" Spooky saluted before jogging off towards the battle.

"That's going to take some getting used to," I grumbled.

"It's cute! It's pretty much exactly what he did before, he's just more vocal about it now," Sharron said with a giggle.

"And, to be honest, he did an excellent job of managing your bears while you were unconscious. I'd even say they were even more organized than before."

"That shouldn't be a total surprise, though. I just threw my bears into rough lines and pointed them at the enemy. He has some sort of command AI," I said defensively.

"I'd actually be disappointed if he couldn't use basic tactics." As Spooky inspected the line, I noticed minute changes in the bears; their fire became slightly more accurate, and the damage they caused increased.

"Remind me to repay Hoppy later," I said.

"If I ever manage to make those points back."

"You may be closer than you think," Nyx's voice said, echoing out from behind me. I jumped, spinning on the spot, only to find Dusty standing there.

"Don't sneak up on me like that!" I hissed at Nyx. Normally it would have taken me a few seconds for my heart rate to come down after a scare like that, but apparently the new heart was a lot more efficient. I barely even noticed the jump.

"What do you mean, 'It may be closer than you think'?"

"Defeating a Forty-Four is no mean feat; it's worth one-hundred and twenty thousand points. Split nine ways, and factoring in the bonus, that's fourteen thousand points," Nyx reported.

"You've also earned an additional seventeen thousand and change during the cleanup."

"Fuck me…" I mumbled.

"Was it really worth that much?"

"Indeed. I also decided to reward you with a bonus token for its death. The other AI rewarded their charges with two or three, but since you performed support and did not face it directly, I could not rank your participation as highly as the others," Nyx continued.

"That gives you six total."

"I don't fucking care," I replied.

"I don't have a fucking clue what to spend them on anyway."

"I have a suggestion," Sharron said, cutting in.

"Get more Bobs. I think we would have lost a lot more people if it wasn't for him."

"Bob's a special boy," I replied.

"And although I may invest in a couple more assault models, none of them will be close to as good as he is." I glanced back at the battle at the mention of my oversized, walking act of mass destruction, and noticed for the first time that he wasn't rampaging through the antithesis lines.

"Where is Bob anyway?" I asked.

"There was an incident," Sharron admitted.

"He's mostly fine, I think, he's just… in pieces." I raised my eyebrow at that.

"Who? Bob?" I was flabbergasted at the very idea.

"How many pieces?" I immediately pinged Bob's location, which was somewhere over behind the Kodiaks. When I made my way over, I found him sitting behind the second vehicle, left leg and right arm missing, and his facade caught in an eternal loop of being repaired by nanites, then dissolved by the bacteria.

"Hey Boss!" the big bear greeted me cheerfully.

"Fuck me, you look bad," I said quietly.

"You should see the other guy!" he said.

"It's not a big deal, I just need a new arm and leg and I'll be right as rain again."

"Did you just make a joke about this?" I asked in horror.

"I didn't think anything could break you."

"Well, I'd never been bitten by a Forty-Four before," he replied.

"Turns out, one of those is capable of chewing through my armor, and with five heads, they're extremely bitey! One of the ugly heads managed to reach me while I was holding the thing down. I'm lucky they just got my limbs and not my core."

"Fuck… I don't have a clue how to start fixing you right now," I admitted, crouching down to survey the damage.

"It's probably going to be expensive."

"I can wait! Not like I can go anywhere!" he replied cheerfully.

"Right. Just… relax, for now," I said awkwardly as I stood up again.

"Anything else I should know about?" I asked Sharron, who had followed me.

"Perhaps another antithesis superweapon, or a second hive complex?"

"Actually, now that you mention it," she started, "there is something." I grabbed the front of my helmet.

"Of course there is."