Chương 225: Book 4 - Chapter 15 - Offshoot Evolution

"What the fuck was that?" Amy screamed.

"I don't know, but Deadbeat's gone! I've completely lost him!" I shouted. I was trying my best to keep my cool, but deep down I was panicking. I'd lost bears before, but this was the first time I'd lost a member of the core squad, and I didn't know if I'd ever get them back again.

"Everyone stay away from the walls and head back towards the entrance!" Nora yelled.

"Screw that!" Bob growled as he bounded down the hallway.

"Hey! You ugly pile of mulch, gimme back my friend!"

"Bob, don't…" I started, but the big bear was so fast that he reached Deadbeat's previous location before I could stop him. As soon as he stepped up to the wall, the mass of tendrils shot out again, wrapping around Bob's extremities. Unlike Deadbeat, who disappeared in a heartbeat, Bob didn't move an inch. He slowly reached up, grabbed a mass of the entangling vines, wrapped them around his arm, and pulled.

The antithesis seemed to realize it was in trouble, and most of the tendrils retracted, but it couldn't pull back the writhing bundle that Bob had seized. Slowly, the big bear inched back, stretching the vines until taut, and the wall started to bulge. With one last herculean yank, he pulled the creature through the wall, where it collapsed in a heap. The thing looked like a Model Four, but it was smaller and less… solid.

Instead of having a massive bear-like body made of vines, this Model just had a small seed-like core and hundreds of vines that moved independently.

"Bob, that was completely irresponsible!" I yelled as I slowly jogged towards him, carefully watching the walls as I did.

"What if that thing had taken you too?"

"Never would have happened," the bear declared.

"You know that once I activate my spatial anchor, nothing can move me. The worst thing that could have happened is the beastie and I would have fought to a stalemate."

"No, the worst thing that could have happened is that thing could have ripped you limb from limb and disappeared with the pieces," I hissed, stopping a few feet away from Bob so the antithesis couldn't grab me. It tried too. Bob stared at me blankly for a moment before breaking out into a goofy smile.

"Naw, never happen."

"What is that?" Amy asked as she walked up behind me.

"I donno," I admitted. I crouched down in front of the creature to watch it for a minute. It didn't seem to have full control of its body because half of the tendrils grasped at the hole in the wall, trying to climb back in and escape, while the other half blindly grasped for anything that came close.

"It makes my hand tingly," Bob declared.

"It's a Model Four variant," one of the rearguard bears shouted down the hallway, in Nyx's voice.

"The Model Four-S. It's actually closer to the Four's original ocean-going form than the current Model Four. Be careful; it tendrils both excrete a powerful paralytic and project a low level ECM."

"Why is it flailing like that?" I asked.

"Distributed nervous system. Half of the tendrils are designed to seek out nearby movement and entangle prey, while the other half are used for locomotion. Don't let it grab you, because once it does, it won't let go. The antithesis will throw the Four-S into a digestion pool along with its prey." Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

"Can I get rid of this thing yet? It's starting to get on my nerves," Bob growled as the Four-S gave up escaping and started wrapping itself around his legs like some sort of cephalopod predator.

"Yes, absolutely," Nora grunted.

"I don't want that thing anywhere near me." Bob simply raised one leg, snapping several of the grasping tendrils, leaned forward, and brought his foot down on the core. I expected the thing to immediately cave, but it actually resisted for a second before Bob managed to crush it. The tendrils immediately started spasming, lashing out in every possible direction, even the ones that had been disconnected from the core. It took a good ten seconds until all the vines finally lay still.

"Avoid touching the vines, if you can," Nora hissed.

"We don't know if they've excreted the paralytic or how long it's viable. The last thing we need right now is for someone to accidentally knock themselves out of action." I nodded, carefully stepped around the debris, and stuck my head into the hole Bob created when pulling the Model Four-S out of the wall. Behind the hole was a series of much smaller tunnels. They were so narrow that even I would have trouble crawling through them. They were just wide enough for a Model Four-S to crawl while dragging a victim.

"Fuck… there's a whole maze back here," I mumbled, before pulling my head back out of the hole.

"If someone did get grabbed by a Four-S, where would it take them?" I yelled back at Nyx.

"The digestion chamber. Although when the hive has a glut of resources, the Four-S's prey are typically considered lower priority than other biomass. Live prey keeps longer," Nyx reported.

"I find that both comforting and horrifying," Nora mumbled.

"So if we get to the hive fast enough, we might be able to save whoever came in before us?" Amy asked.

"Then what are we waiting for?" The girl turned to walk further down the tunnel, but Nora was faster and grabbed her by the back of the collar.

"The walls are full of ambush predators, remember? We might have killed one, but who knows how many there are. We're not moving forward until we can deal with them. Keeping yourself alive is just as important as saving others," Nora explained.

"So, what would you suggest?"

"If you're not sure what to do, ask your AI for suggestions. They know more about the antithesis conflict than this entire planet. They'll probably know exactly what you need," I explained.

"As an example… Nyx! Do I have anything that could detect those fucking things through the walls? And something with enough punch to penetrate?"

"Of course. The foxes are more than capable of detecting vibrations of the Four-Ss traveling behind the walls, and your LCARS can fire penetrating rockets," my AI replied.

"Wait… Why don't you have any foxes with you today? I didn't even notice until now," Nora said.

"Because I normally have fucking Bandit with me," I grumbled.

"And with all the shit happening today, I forgot to trade one of the regular bears out for a fox, okay? I didn't realize it until now."

"Wait? What do the Foxes do? The theory online was that the different models have different functions; it's obvious that the Moose are bigger, but no one was able to agree on what the foxes were for," Amy said, cocking her head to the side slightly.

"They're detectors, and they have a full suite of optical, auditory, and olfactory sensors, along with a dozen other things," I explained.

"I should have realized the problem earlier. I'm not getting the regular sensor updates. But it's been six months since I've been in serious combat and I normally ignore most of the warnings… Fuck. If I had noticed those fucking things, it never would have had a chance to grab Deadbeat and the others." I sighed and turned back towards Nyx.

"Get me a fox, a rifle, and a clip of penetrating LCARS ammo. I'll trade weapons with it until we find the hive."

"You got it." Purchased - Class II Autonomous Combat Bot 'Fox' Configuration - 550 points Purchased - B3-Assault Rifle - 50 points Purchased - LCARS Wall Penetrating Rounds (x50), drum magazine - 51 points Points remaining: 2739 points The bot materialized right in front of me, unadorned of anything but its red fur covering. Before it could even move, I snatched the B3 out of its grip and placed my LCARS in its place. The fox stared at the weapon in confusion for a moment, before looking towards me.

"Enemies in the walls. Please take care of them before they become a problem," I explained as I snatched the large magazine off the floor and passed it to the bot. The fox nodded, and quickly swapped the magazines. It just let the half-empty mag tumble from its grip as it snapped the rifle into firing position and fired half a dozen rounds into the wall further down the tunnel. Once it was done, it simply lowered the rifle and ran ahead of us, nose up, sniffing the air.

"What the fuck was that? Why did it do that?" Amy snapped.

"Bob, excavate that wall," I said as I quickly inspected my new rifle. The big bear stepped over and effortlessly put his fist through the wall. When he pulled it back out, he was dragging the lifeless body of a Model Four-S.

"Problem with fighting antithesis through walls is they don't make sound, even when they die. You just have to trust your equipment, or in this case, my troops that they got whatever was on the other side," I explained, shouldering the rifle.

"Now that the fox has proved himself, we should start moving forward. We have a bear to rescue." I caught Nora's disappointed look out of the corner of my eye and smirked, my expression hidden by the helmet.

"Oh, and probably a samurai too. They're also important."